The High Court will determine whether employers can circumvent sham contracting provisions by utilising a third party, such as a labour hire company, to indirectly engage workers, after the FWO today won special leave to challenge a full Federal Court ruling.
The MUA has told the FWC that sacked stevedoring workers at Hutchison's Port Botany terminal, who last night temporarily won their jobs back, have been unable to do so because security guards are preventing access to the site.
The Federal Court has this evening granted an interlocutory order sought by the MUA to stop stevedore Hutchison Ports from proceeding with plans to dismiss almost 100 employees at its Sydney and Brisbane container terminals.
A former abattoir worker, who received unpaid entitlements only after FWO intervention, can also seek damages for negligence after a High Court ruling today, but the NSW Court of Appeal will now need to establish who employed him.
The Federal Circuit Court has fined construction company Baulderstone $25,000 for taking adverse action against a worker who resigned his CFMEU membership, along with $7000 in penalties for two HR managers who were carrying out orders and failed to "exercise their choice" to refuse to comply.
The employer push for lower penalty rates in the Fair Work Commission includes expert evidence that most weekend workers have no problem or only minor problems with performing their duties on Saturdays and Sundays.
The Australian Federal Police has made three arrests after a series of raids in Melbourne today of companies and individuals involved with supplying contract labour to Australia Post.
Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.
The Fair Work Commission has stymied an embattled coal mining company's bid to unilaterally implement a new roster system designed to shave about $50,000 from each employee's annual take home pay.
The AFP have charged a CFMEU official with blackmail, as the police task forces attached to the Heydon Royal Commission broaden their role beyond investigating evidence tendered to the inquiry.