The CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch spent $13.1 million on legal costs in the 12 months to the end of last year, up more than five-fold from $2.3 million in 2014.
The Fair Work Act is "effectively useless" to counter picketing, according to a leading employer-clientele barrister who laments that police often turn "a blind eye" to what would normally be considered criminal conduct, while the High Court's chief justice has canvassed the utility of comparative law in the workplace legal arena.
The FWBC has dropped a substantial part of its case against NSW CFMEU leaders it is accusing of unlawfully entering a $65 million construction project based on "unfounded immigration and superannuation concerns".
An FWC full bench majority has overruled a presidential member's refusal to issue an entry permit to a CFMEU organiser, saying he set a "higher bar" than usual because of the union's adverse track record.
The Federal Court has imposed a $61,000 fine on the CFMEU, senior official Joe McDonald and workers at a Perth construction site after a walkout to protest being docked four hours' pay for starting work less than 30 minutes late after a union meeting.
A court has today fined the CFMEU's construction and general division and three organisers more than $50,000 for their "conspicuous public display of civil disobedience" when they orchestrated an unlawful walk out at a $105 million development project in support of a sacked delegate.
The FWC has suspended the entry permit of a CFMEU official who behaved in an "aggressive and threatening manner" when he told a project manager at a construction site he wanted to "smash" someone.
The AWU has warned BlueScope Steel management to be aware it is sitting on a workplace "bomb that's about to explode" with its continued cost-cutting at the NSW plant producing Colorbond products.