The RTBU's Victorian branch has taken its legal work away from Slater & Gordon, due to the firm's loss of key personnel and its shift to ownership by US hedge funds.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered an end to Glencore's lockout and a CFMEU picket at the Oaky North coal mine in Queensland, to provide a cooling-off period before a second vote on a proposed agreement on March 27.
One of Victoria's most senior judges has queried whether the blackmail charges laid against two CFMEU officials over an alleged secondary boycott of Boral are a "little experimental".
Some 90% of voting Coles workers have endorsed a new agreement that grandfathers over-award pay arrangements for current employees, improves penalty rates and provides a one-off $475 payment, but RAFFWU is expected to raise BOOT-related issues when it is submitted for approval.
A Federal Court judge has upended the recently-adopted precept that unions are vicariously responsible for entry breaches by officials under the Fair Work Act's 'liabilities of bodies corporate' clause, declaring that a close examination of related cases reveals no support for the contention.
The Federal Circuit Court has levelled a $75,000 fine and is expected to order more than $25,000 in compensation against the director of a liquidated supermarkets enterprise who withheld about $450,000 in union dues, superannuation and Easter rates from more than 200 employees.
The ACTU is seeking to hire a fundraising and bequests program coordinator as part of a strategy to diversify its funding base, which largely relies on fees and levies paid by affiliated unions.
