With the FWC about to redetermine a non-union Latrobe Valley power industry deal made with a handful of employees, the CFMMEU has lodged an urgent challenge to a decision denying it a protected action ballot order on the basis it was too late to propose an alternative, union deal.
An employer has been labelled "disingenuous" and a union told it could struggle to explain its interest to members in the "curious" case of employees not paid for work performed when they returned to their jobs before the end of a protected strike.
Stevedore DP World has opened up a new strategy for employers seeking to sideline industrial action, winning a ruling from the FWC that MUA bans on shift extensions were not protected because the employer never asked employees to work beyond their hours within 30 days.
About 1800 waterfront workers have today begun a campaign of rolling strikes at DP World container terminals across Australia this week, after the MUA and stevedore failed to reach agreement on a new enterprise deal.
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.
An FWC member gave due recognition to the reduction of employees' bargaining power that would flow from him acceding to a DP World bid to extend notice for CFMMEU industrial action from three to five days, according to reasons issued by a full Federal Court today.
A full Federal Court majority has today rejected a judge's reasoning for ordering the MUA to pay a fine of just $38,000 for a week-long unlawful strike at Hutchison Ports' Sydney and Brisbane container terminals, but has rebuffed the FWO's contention that the stevedore should have been awarded $600,000 in damages it didn't seek.
A full Federal Court has upheld a finding that agreement-sanctioned union stopwork meetings can be freely used to delay and disrupt business as part of a campaign strategy, but has increased fines for the CFMMEU's coercion of head contractor Hutchison by almost 30%.
The FWC has made a bargaining order compelling the AWU to go against the wishes of its members and meet with an oil and gas refiner to negotiate a new agreement.
The CFMMEU's maritime division and the NRMA-owned operator of Sydney's Manly Fast Ferry service are expected to face off in the FWC this afternoon over planned stoppages that could start tomorrow, after talks this morning failed to resolve a bargaining impasse.
