Legal page 560 of 568

The Federal Court has ruled that two related door manufacturers who provided gift vouchers to non-striking workers did not take adverse action against workers who took protected industrial action in support of a new agreement.

A FWC full bench has cited insufficient clarity in the tribunal's unfair dismissal and adverse action claim forms as one of the reasons for upholding an appeal by a dismissed employee.

BHP Coal was entitled to dismiss a boilermaker who tried to return to work after a lengthy injury-related absence with "quite insufficient and generic medical information" and then refused to attend a company-organised medical assessment.

Former HSU national secretary Craig Thomson will be sentenced next Tuesday, after Lesley Taylor SC, for the prosecution, today told Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg that anything less than an immediate custodial sentence would be "manifestly inadequate".

A Fair Work Commissioner was wrong to give the Tax Office permission to be represented by a solicitor but not a barrister, but a full bench has denied the NSW Bar Association leave to appeal against the representation ruling because the ATO admitted it did not adversely affect its case.

In another chapter of a long-running case involving a botched attempt to lodge AWAs, a former company director will have the penalty for her role in short-changing 33 call centre workers reduced after the Federal Court cut in half the period in which she was liable as an accessory to her company's breaches.

In one of the first rulings since meal rooms became the default meeting place for union discussions with employees, the FWC has refused to issue an order giving the NUW unfettered access to workers at a Coles distribution centre, despite finding that the chain's new right of entry policy is inconsistent with the Fair Work Act.

In a rare instance of a court imposing the maximum penalty under the Fair Work Act, the CFMEU mining and energy division has been fined $33,000 for unlawfully implementing its overtime policy at BHP Coal's Peak Downs mine.

The Federal Court has issued a sweeping injunction to stop CFMEU construction and general division WA branch assistant secretary Joe McDonald from entering Brookfield Multiplex construction sites for nearly three years and ordered the union to pay the company $500,000 in compensation for strikes he incited at two major projects last year.

The employers of two long-term train drivers who were off work for between 18 months and two years because of health issues were entitled to dismiss them when they were ruled unable to resume driving duties, the Fair Work Commission has found.