About 1800 waterfront workers have today begun a campaign of rolling strikes at DP World container terminals across Australia this week, after the MUA and stevedore failed to reach agreement on a new enterprise deal.
The ABCC is pressing ahead with prosecutions against the CFMMEU, three officials and 44 individual workers over alleged industrial action last year on a Perth airport rail link project.
A full Federal Court majority has today rejected a judge's reasoning for ordering the MUA to pay a fine of just $38,000 for a week-long unlawful strike at Hutchison Ports' Sydney and Brisbane container terminals, but has rebuffed the FWO's contention that the stevedore should have been awarded $600,000 in damages it didn't seek.
Two AMWU delegates sacked by Visy for allegedly organising unprotected industrial action over a new drug and alcohol policy will have their delayed unfair dismissal cases heard after admissions by the union and one of its officials helped end entwined Federal Court proceedings today.
In a significant decision as to what constitutes industrial action, a full Federal Court has found that the legislative framework does not capture instances where a subcontractor's workers down tools with the support of their direct employer.
A Federal Court judge has questioned the "wisdom or fairness" of laws requiring employers to subtract four hours' pay for as little as 10 minutes unprotected action, after finding the AWU breached the Fair Work Act when an official asked a BlueScope manager not to dock returning strikers for starting a shift late.
The FWC has found the RTBU organised unprotected industrial action at Queensland Rail in the lead-up to the state's River Fire Festival weekend and couched a directive discouraging members from participating "in terms that rallied" them.
The union leading the campaign against prospective job losses at a major brewery is at risk of being sidelined after the FWC found it "reached the line between [unacceptably careless disregard] and. . . deliberate non-compliance" in failing to communicate restraining notices to members.
The FWO has launched a challenge to last month's Federal Court order for the MUA to pay a $38,000 fine for a single contravention of the prohibition on unlawful strikes, when the watchdog was seeking $3.6 million for what it says was more than 500 breaches during industrial action against stevedore Hutchison Ports.
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.