The FWC has rejected the FWO's forceful arguments against renewing a union organiser's entry permit after weighing his history of transgressions, doubts over whether he paid a court-ordered personal fine and evidence that training had better equipped him to avoid potential future breaches.
The ABCC might be gone, but its legacy continues, with the Federal Court fining the CFMMEU and six officials more than $300,000 for entry breaches on a highway upgrade in 2018.
The ETU has confirmed that it will challenge a Federal Court ruling that "neuters" unions' rights to enter workplaces to organise workers through a restrictive interpretation of provisions allowing access for "discussions" with employees.
Union officials can't use their right to enter premises for discussions with members to gather signatures on petitions or "secure a commitment to a particular course of action in the future", the Federal Court has found, ruling in favour of an employer that blocked access for an organiser who sought workers' backing for a majority support determination.
In a significant decision on the nature of work, the FWC has found that the nursing home at the centre of one of Queensland's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks should have paid employees for the time spent taking rapid antigen tests before the start of their shifts.
The FWC has granted an entry permit to a TWU organiser after accepting evidence of his having "turned his life around" since his conviction for assault, stalking and breaching AVOs during a "difficult" marriage breakdown.
The FWC has renewed entry permits for three CFMMEU officials, but has made them conditional on them not exercising specific entry powers designed to protect textile, clothing and footwear workers, unless they complete further training.
A CFMMEU organiser who engaged in threatening and coercive conduct, including stopping a concrete pour, has failed to convince the FWC to renew his entry permit, despite presenting evidence that he had recently completed training on the error of his ways.
A court has fined a CFMMEU official almost $9000, but has attached little weight to "remedial" training he undertook after the ABCC charged him with preventing a concrete pour, saying it should not be necessary for someone in his role.
A judge has in slugging a CFMMEU organiser with a $12,500 personal fine speculated that counsel for the ABCC may have led a "sheltered" existence in not appreciating that the official had aimed a "quite disgusting" homophobic slur at a project's safety adviser.
