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Key witnesses in this week's collapsed criminal case against two Victorian CFMEU leaders told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that nobody mentioned the word "blackmail" to them until more than a year after a crucial meeting in April 2013.

Having only recently been given the all-clear over a heavily-scrutinised $75,000 payment while at the CEPU, former Unions Tasmania secretary and political aspirant Kevin Harkins will face a Federal Court judge next month as the ABCC pursues him over "abusive" entry breaches.

A year after its establishment, the Registered Organisations Commission has begun its first court case, seeking penalties against the CEPU for allegedly failing to keep an accurate list of its offices and office holders on numerous occasions over a period of more than two years.

A tribunal has thrown out a union official's claim he was discriminated against on the basis of his psychological condition and industrial activity, instead finding that his dismissal after five months off work followed an "impossible" demand for assurances he wouldn't be sacked for outstanding disciplinary matters.

Virgin Australia can use pilots' entire final pay to meet increasing costs of training new recruits if they leave within three years, under a domestic pilots' agreement that the FWC has approved despite finding it "likely" that the clause is not a permitted deduction.

The FWC has thrown out the ABCC's latest bid to block a high-profile CFMMEU leader from visiting worksites, warning that any future applications will need "actual evidence" that he controlled officials and failed to address their actions.

The firebrand secretary of the UFU's Victorian branch, Peter Marshall, has easily seen off a rank-and-file challenger in internal elections.

In a significant decision on the FWC's power to deal with clashes between agreements and state laws, a tribunal member has found that jurisdiction was established by a combination of health and safety considerations and the absence of legislative reference to exclusive arbitrators.

In a significant addition to the jurisprudence around "arrangements" between transferring businesses, the FWC has rejected union arguments that the urgent use of an old employer's pathology equipment after a midnight handover should lead to continuing employees being retained on their existing, more generous enterprise agreement.

In upholding the dismissal on medical grounds of a prison officer who was later declared fit, the FWC has noted his union gained permission to obtain a second opinion but also assisted him in making an ill-fated decision not to pursue it until after his termination.