In a dispute that could extend to the eastern seaboard, major stevedore DP World says it will lock out its Fremantle workforce tomorrow and subcontract its work to competitor, Patrick.
In a new report, the Business Council of Australia has turned its sights on penalty rates, the permitted content of enterprise agreements and unwanted third party intervention in employment relationships, at the same time advocating that the safety net of pay and conditions be "strongly enforced".
A court has found that a worker who was asked to look for alternative employment due to his heart condition was dismissed, rejecting his employer's argument that his job ended by "mutual agreement".
In another instance of the FWBC's tougher stance under Nigel Hadgkiss, the inspectorate has begun Federal Court action against 23 workers accused of taking unprotected industrial action at the $1.8 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital project.
The Fair Work Commission has suggested BHP Coal was "kicking a man when he is down" and acting without a "sense of Christian charity" in seeking legal costs from a former employee who unsuccessfully claimed unfair dismissal.
An employer subject to a bullying claim has told the Fair Work Commission that the new laws need a "filtering" mechanism to protect "innocent parties" from their abuse.
Department of Human Services employees look set to be the first to vote on an offer made under the Coalition's restrictive new public sector bargaining policy, with the CPSU warning the below-inflation pay and reduced conditions on the table are "early-warning signs" of what is ahead.
The Federal Court has refused to delay the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate's unlawful coercion case against the CFMEU over the 2012 Grocon blockade, finding that the company's contempt charges against the union in the Victorian Supreme Court are not criminal proceedings.
In an unusual postscript to a notorious sham contracting case, an abattoir operator has relied on a Federal Court ruling that it had vigorously opposed to successfully argue that it was the employer of an injured worker, thus avoiding having to pay him more than $150,000 in common law damages.
