A TNT Express driver who clumsily tried to extricate himself from a conversation that had s--ual undertones with a younger female retail store employee did not breach the company's harassment and discrimination policy, the Fair Work Commission has found.
Boral chief executive Mike Kane has told the Heydon Royal Commission that his company is contemplating new legal action against its competitors, customers and the CFMEU under competition law, labelling them as conspirators in a union campaign to deprive it of its Melbourne market share after it refused to cut off supplies to Grocon.
The Heydon Royal Commission has raised the possibility that the CFMEU's bans on Boral concrete supplies might have contravened anti-cartel and blackmail laws, in addition to flouting secondary boycott provisions.
In a testy exchange with CFMEU barrister John Agius SC this morning, Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon has ruled that airing a building company director's secret recording of a telephone call with a union organiser was not unlawful because it was in the public interest for it to be played.
The Federal Circuit Court has found it has the discretion to make costs orders against lawyers in industrial matters, despite the absence of any such power in the Fair Work Act.
Employers seeking to make greenfields agreements for new projects will need to ensure they haven't employed any workers "necessary" for the enterprise, a Fair Work Commission full bench has confirmed today.
A Fair Work Commission full bench majority has found that an employee of The Body Shop did not breach her employment contract by working as an independent contractor for another retailer, and was unfairly dismissed when she refused to terminate the engagement.
The Abbott Government has given the WA Government and third parties the power to apply to the Fair Work Commission to suspend or terminate industrial action that is threatening the economy or endangering health and safety.
Employees of national retailer Spotlight will return to award conditions today, after enterprise bargaining negotiations with the SDA failed and the union convinced the Fair Work Commission to terminate the company's first-ever collective agreement.
The Heydon Royal Commission will turn its sights on the CFMEU next week, moving to Melbourne for three days starting on Monday, followed by one day in Sydney on Friday.
