The Federal Court has ordered the CFMEU to stop blocking access to a major Sydney apartment project, pending the full hearing of the developer's claim that the union has breached secondary boycott laws.
NUW Victorian branch secretary Tim Kennedy is poised to succeed Charlie Donnelly as the union's national secretary, in the latest leadership changes at the top of the Australian labour movement.
The Fair Work Commission has pushed the federal and state governments to show their hands in this year's wage review, asking them what dollar or percentage increase would constitute a "cautious" or "balanced" approach.
The ACTU has asked that a member of the minimum wage review panel stand aside on the grounds of "apprehended bias" after he sat on the Abbott Government's Commission of Audit, which recommended a radical reduction in the pay safety net. Meanwhile, retail super funds have begun legal action against the FWC.
The NSW Government has had a victory in its long-running battle to include compulsory superannuation increases within the public sector 2.5% wage cap, after the State's Court of Appeal quashed last year's IRC ruling that the wages cap only applied to Commission-awarded increases.
A senior FWC member has strongly endorsed legal representation of parties in hearings, saying that with the rise of self-representation, the involvement of legal practitioners is "more often than not, a welcome relief".
The Fair Work Commission has upheld the RSPCA's dismissal of an executive manager for leaking to the media, providing confidential documents to his union and undermining his chief executive, describing his conduct as "reprehensible" and "duplicitous".
New analysis by the ACTU argues that the real agenda of the Commission of Audit's suggested changes to the national minimum wage is to reduce the pay safety net for 1.5 million workers who receive award minimum rates.
The Federal Court has set aside enterprise agreements for three private hospitals, finding the group's corporate manager had no authority to make them.
The ACTU has called for the Heydon Royal Commission to investigate all political slush funds, after the revelations of NSW Liberal Party donations that have emerged from the state's Independent Commission Against Corruption.
