Time is running out for the Turnbull Government to pass its Bill to impose a public interest test on union mergers before the FWC considers green-lighting the CFMEU, MUA and TCFU amalgamation, with the tribunal planning to conduct a hearing in early February.
A CEPU official has alleged that fellow officials participated in hearing complaints against her after earlier making bullying and threatening telephone calls, the Federal Court has been told.
The Federal Court has today made a consent order under which the AFP will not pass on documents seized in Tuesday's raids on the AWU, and the Registered Organisations Commission will not accept them, until the union's bid to stop the investigation of the matter has been heard.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says one of her staffers has resigned after admitting he leaked information to the media about the AFP raids on the AWU yesterday.
Flight Attendants Association national division secretary Andrew Staniforth has withdrawn a court case against his union after it agreed to provide an opportunity for him to respond to "questions" and appoint former Unions NSW secretary Mark Lennon to investigate any subsequent allegations.
The FWC has allowed the Flight Attendants' Association to jettison plans to merge its two divisions, while a former secretary might face penalties after admitting he failed to provide budgets from 2006 to 2012.
The ACTU has sought to broker discussions with two smaller maritime unions that are objecting to the planned merger of the CFMEU with the MUA and TCFU.
Two employer groups have flagged that they will argue that the CFMEU's merger with two other unions cannot proceed because the former's construction division has a large amount of outstanding legal action against it.
The ROC has updated its Federal Court claims against the TWU after the union found a back-up of its Queensland membership database it said was lost when the outgoing state secretary made all the branch's employees redundant in 2010, but the watchdog says it lacks vital information about who could vote.
