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.
The Federal Court has upheld Qantas' right to refuse access to documents sought over a "leave burn" program for aircraft engineers, in a decision a union leader says raises the bar for entering workplaces to prove breaches.
The FWO has launched a challenge to last month's Federal Court order for the MUA to pay a $38,000 fine for a single contravention of the prohibition on unlawful strikes, when the watchdog was seeking $3.6 million for what it says was more than 500 breaches during industrial action against stevedore Hutchison Ports.
The ripples from a recent decision upsetting the authority on outer limits contract workers pursuing unfair dismissal claims have reached another jurisdiction, with the WA IR Commission ordering the reinstatement of a septuagenarian school traffic warden who had been "taken advantage" of by the employer.
Two landmark class actions allege that a BHP Billiton subsidiary induced two labour hire companies to unlawfully engage hundreds of coal mineworkers as casuals and pay them less than the industry award.
The FWC has today rejected union arguments that a pallet service centre's agreement setting wages for "any person engaged to perform work" extends to labour hire workers.
In a significant rebuff to employer attempts to accelerate agreement approval processes, a five-member FWC full bench as part of its "loaded rates" ruling has affirmed the requirement to apply the BOOT to each and every covered employee.
An FWC full bench has made a significant decision on what constitutes new activity when making greenfields agreements, after the CFMMEU described the deal as a "a cynical, industrially incorrigible and flawed attempt to bypass bargaining with its employees and their union of choice".
Toll has been given the green light to expand the use of in-cabin cameras and infrared fatigue monitoring systems for its long distance and liquid tanker drivers, the FWC finding them neither unsafe nor unreasonable.
