The AMWU says a decision by the RBA's money printing arm, Note Printing Australia, to lock out workers in response to a planned one-hour stopwork leaves members free to employ an element of surprise in future actions in support of a new deal.
Worker blew last chance "in spectacular fashion"; Alcoa mine and refinery workers down tools; Foreign pilots visa designed to drive down salaries: Union; Emergency services commissioner resigns over bullying.
BlueScope is seeking to bolster a proposed three-year agreement at its Port Kembla steel operations with a guaranteed $4000 pre-payment from a new profit share scheme.
The FWC for the second time in five weeks has warned of the serious potential consequences of signing statutory declarations in support of agreement approval applications without verifying the information.
A company that relied on an FWC online calculator to notify workers of a ballot has had the resulting agreement thrown out for failing to provide the statutory seven-day access period, prompting a senior Commission member to lament his inability to "overcome what is clearly a procedural failure".
The CFMMEU has begun Federal Court action that seeks to hold John Holland and CPB Contracting vicariously liable for subcontractors' alleged underpayment of wages and entitlements on Canberra's light rail project, with the union seeking to recover $700,000 and impose penalties.
An FWC full bench has quashed a finding that BHP Coal should have kept paying or considered alternative duties for a mineworker while his driving licence was suspended, saying it would be tantamount to requiring an employer to excuse from duties but pay workers who turned up drunk.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus has today mounted a spirited defence of solidarity among union members, saying that calling a strikebreaker a "scab" is "an accurate description", while the peak body's new president said she experienced the power of unions when as 14-year-old waitress, members helped her fight back against sexual harassment by a supervisor.
The FWC has given short shrift to union applications for a protected action ballot at Kimberly-Clark Australia, finding a cancelled meeting and a week's delay in securing a new date cannot be construed as being obstructive.
Global resources giant Rio Tinto, after its recent rapprochement with unions, is "the largest and most comprehensive example" of why it makes sense to bargain with employees' representatives, according to mining union leader Tony Maher.
