The NSW Public Service Association has defied a court order restraining it from organising its members to strike in protest at the State Government's plans to privatise disability support work and will now face substantial penalties in the Supreme Court.
Planned industrial action by more than 20,000 Centrelink employees has been postponed after FWC-guided discussions saw the Department of Human Services withdraw an s418 order to halt the strike on the basis it was a protest against its so-called "robo-debt" scheme rather than a legitimate bargaining manouevre.
The Department of Human Services today told the FWC that it must make an s418 order to halt industrial action by more than 20,000 Centrelink employees from midnight on Monday because it constituted a protest against the agency's "robo-debt" recovery scheme rather than the pursuit of legitimate bargaining claims.
A court has fined the CFMEU and two organisers almost $100,000, after finding the union engaged in unlawful coercion and adverse action when it organised a blockade at the $1.6 billion Port of Melbourne expansion project because an employer refused to bargain.
Rio Tinto has agreed to sell its NSW coal interests – including the Coal & Allied operations that were at the centre of the late 1990s battle of the IR "titans" – to Chinese interests for $3.2 billion ($US2.45 billion).
The FWC has stayed the termination of the enterprise agreement for the Loy Yang power station and coal mine, conditional on CFMEU members refraining from taking any further industrial action until the appeal is decided.
The tone around deadlocked negotiations over a new agreement at Parmalat's Echuca processing plant has shifted dramatically over the past 24 hours, both sides believing a resolution is near after agreeing to divide up and rework contentious clauses before reconvening early next week.
The FWC has ordered the CFMEU's mining and energy division to stop inciting its members to ban overtime and take suspected sickies at AGL Energy's Loy Yang A power station.
An FWC full bench has accused the CFMEU of seeking to "disguise" what would be an exercise of judicial power over entry rights as an administrative matter and of relying on a "red herring" argument.
The ABCC is seeking special leave from the High Court to seek to overturn a recent decision that stymied the watchdog's push to prohibit unions from paying fines imposed on officials for unlawful conduct.
