In the wake of the hasty passage of legislation six months ago to enable the CFMMEU's mining division to go its own way, the Attorney-General's Department says that eligible constituent parts of unions and other registered organisations can apply to demerge if they have amalgamated since early 1991.
The merger between the Transport Workers Union and the Virgin Independent Pilots Association in July will lead to the creation of a pilots' division within the TWU, subject to VIPA members approving the nuptials in a ballot.
The CFMMEU's mining and energy division has asked the FWC to expedite the hearing of its demerger application because of the union's civil war, in correspondence revealing its substantial assets and its proposed new name, while the Commission has today timetabled a case dealing with threshold matters.
The CFMMEU mining and energy division's historic application to demerge from the amalgamated union will have its first mention tomorrow before FWC President Iain Ross.
The much-reduced IR omnibus Bill passed Parliament today, after the House of Representatives accepted the Senate's amendments, while the Government has also made regulations for its union demerger legislation.
The influential role of an IR manager who advocated establishing enterprise associations to achieve "union-free" workplaces and doubled as the proposed organisation's president has been one of the elements fatal to the bid to register an enterprise union at Melbourne's Della Rosa Fresh Foods.
The UWU told the FWC this morning that a proposed enterprise union now has the company's IR manager – an advocate of "union-free" workplaces – holding a key leadership position, as it seeks to convince the Commission to reject the entity's registration application.
Two union-rep teachers are facing court action launched by a new, unregistered rival to the Queensland Teachers' Union after they sent colleagues an all-staff school email claiming it could not represent their industrial interests.
The Federal Court has this afternoon rejected the CFMMEU's bid to stay an injunction that effectively stopped it passing a resolution aimed at frustrating its mining and energy division's demerger plans.