Aldi has again failed to rein-in the TWU over its long-running "safe rates" campaign, with a full Federal Court confirming that the union is not constrained by consumer law prohibitions on misleading or deceptive conduct.
The ABCC has enjoyed another mixed result in its campaign to bring the CFMMEU to heel, a Federal Court judge agreeing to impose personal payment orders against three officials involved in picketing a building site but rejecting argument that the union's past record should necessarily attract maximum penalties.
The operator of the "robo-terminal" at Melbourne's Webb Dock says it is re-activating a damages claim against the CFMMEU which seeks to recover $80 million in losses and foregone income from a picket in late 2017.
"Free" childcare might not keep council centres open, warns union; 'Virtual picket line' to support extending wage subsidy; Unsighted lawyer ordered to take practice management course.
A court's imposition of $200,000 in fines on the CFMMEU for unlawful pickets that might have caused "some very small loss of productivity" underlines the heavy sanctions construction unions face for such actions under the legislation that re-established the ABCC after the 2016 double dissolution election.
The NUW will face total penalties of $72,900 over unlawful industrial action at two Woolworths distribution centres in Melbourne in 2015, after a Federal Court ruling.
The Federal Court has restrained the manufacturer of Vegemite jars and CUB beer bottles from deploying its managers to perform the work of striking maintenance workers while it determines union claims that the strategy constitutes adverse action and a breach of its agreement.
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.
The CFMMEU's construction division says senior NSW officials at the centre of a new ABCC court action have denied alleged threatening conduct, such as warning a crane company to "agree with everything" in a deal as "you don't want your blokes offsite, equipment damaged, cranes wrecked".
