Legal page 383 of 566

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has quietly established a special unit that has multiple investigations afoot in the commercial construction industry.

The High Court will next Friday hear special leave applications from WorkSafe Victoria and a CFMEU official who are challenging a full Federal Court finding that he needed a federal entry permit to assist a health and safety representative when invited onto a construction site.

In a decision signalling potential judicial pushback against so-called "sham" agreements, a Federal Court has quashed a two-year-old deal approved by three employees that now covers more than 1000 mining services workers, ruling that the employer made inadequate efforts to explain a document benchmarked against 11 different awards.

A Lorna Jane employee with a pre-existing personality disorder has failed in her $570,000 bid to hold the retailer liable for a manager's Facebook spray and alleged bullying she claimed triggered her condition.

The giant miner Glencore has extended the lockout of about 190 workers at its Oaky North coal mine in Queensland for another two weeks, to 132 days. Meanwhile, the union that represents the mineworkers has a new general secretary.

A Gorgon LNG project worker has lost his adverse action bid after a court found his complaints about offensive and racist conduct played no part in an HR manager's decision to make him redundant.

Users have warned that protected industrial action involving pilot vessels in Sydney's seaports is causing "mayhem " in the busy lead-up to Christmas.

The FWC has reinstated a CFMEU lodge president dismissed for a series of threatening phone calls to workmates after questioning why recommendations and mitigating factors raised during a senior HR advisor's investigations were absent from the employer's final report.

In one of the first extended discussions about the capacity to include incidental matters in modern awards, the FWC has called for further submissions on how or whether to incorporate a standard clause that would permit employers to deduct up to five weeks pay when employees quit without giving sufficient notice.

An "acquiescent" labour hire company should have sought more information from a host employer about its reasons for ending the placement of an on-hire worker, the FWC has ruled in finding her dismissal unfair.