A judge has today comprehensively rejected an FWO attempt to rewrite the way courts assess fines for unlawful strikes, ordering the CFMMEU's MUA division to pay $38,000 for a solitary contravention after the watchdog sought $3.6 million in penalties for more than 500 breaches.
In a significant ruling that might reduce penalties regulators can win for Fair Work Act breaches, the Federal Court has found that the legislation's double jeopardy provision prevents the imposition of separate fines for related contraventions arising from the same conduct.
The FWC has granted an entry permit to a former CFMEU official once fined $30,000 for blockading a worksite and abusing workers in a bid to coerce Grocon into making an agreement, hearing he became a "different person" once employed as an AWU organiser.
The MUA delegate whose loss of casual stevedoring shifts sparked last year's Webb Dock blockade was earlier mistakenly provided with a letter by the container terminal operator's HR-IR director declaring him a full-timer, the Federal Court has been told.
The FWO is seeking to fine the CFMMEU's MUA division more than $3.5 million for unlawful industrial action against Hutchison Ports, using a novel argument that historic contraventions of the same Fair Work Act provision denies the union the benefit of the legislation's single course of conduct mechanism.
Two Esso Australia union delegates have failed to convince the FWC that their summary dismissals for isolating and abusing workers who accepted lower-paying contracts were unfair or in breach of the company's disciplinary policy.
The Victorian Supreme Court has rejected an application by the CFMMEU to delay civil damages proceedings brought by the operator of Port of Melbourne's new "robo" terminal until its merger with the MUA and TCFU is bedded down.
The FWC has ordered the ANMF and United Voice to call off planned industrial action at a patient transport provider, finding their failure to provide greater clarity when notifying the action than they did when applying for the ballot left the employer unable to respond or prepare.
Printing, counting and logistics workers at the RBA's money printing arm, Note Printing Australia, are about to vote on whether to strike indefinitely, conduct unlimited stopworks and ban communication tasks in a bid to win a 4% annual pay rise, with their unions pointing to a package awarded to the bank's directly-engaged employees.
The FWC is set this afternoon to hear Patrick Stevedores' application to Commission to stop alleged planned industrial action by MUA members at its Port Botany container terminal in support of maintenance workers who are about to embark on a seven-day protected strike.
