The construction watchdog is investigating whether Master Builders Tasmania charged induction fees for more than 120 Chinese plasterers in order to work on a major project in Hobart.
The FWC has further clarified the circumstances in which the signatures of a majority of workers can compel an employer to bargain with a union, finding that inviting employees to add their names to a petition occasionally left in an unlocked car did not reduce its force.
Class action law firm Adero says it believes labour supplier One Key Workforce wound up owing more than 2000 mineworkers on casual contracts far more than the $38 million sum estimated by administrators, as it prepares to file a claim holding its parent company liable as their "true employer".
In an important interlocutory ruling, the Federal Court has today restrained mining giant BHP Coal from stopping a reinstated labour hire mineworker returning to the job at its Bowen Basin coal mine.
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.
BP Australia is seeking to terminate the enterprise agreement for its oil refinery in Western Australia, in the latest case of a big employer using what the Federal Opposition has dubbed the "nuclear option" to break a bargaining deadlock.
IR Minister Kelly O'Dwyer is intervening in Workpac's bid to block a casual from winning leave entitlements or to "off-set" his claims with loading and flat rates already paid, while the CFMMEU says it will also seek to intervene to protect principles established in Skene.
A lawyer representing five labour hire fruit pickers who withdrew an underpayments test case after winning a $150,000 settlement says he would welcome a "global settlement" for other claimants, while the employer accuses the NUW of funding the litigation in an effort to extend its patch.
The FWC has rejected arguments that the CFMEU engaged in pattern bargaining during negotiations over agreements with two crane operators, clearing the path for indefinite strikes to begin early this morning.
As the mining union prepares to ramp-up its campaign for a "just transition" for workers whose future is disrupted by climate change, its leader has warned the Labor Party that to take power at the next election, it must win the Central Queensland seats that contain thousands of coal mining and power workers.
