Former High Court judge Dyson Heydon has told the first sitting of the Coalition Government's royal commission into unions he is heading that its terms of reference are "not hostile to trade unions", while outlining the heavy criminal sanctions that apply to those who breach its rules.
The FWBC has included state leaders of the CFMEU and CEPU in a list it has issued today of 18 construction union officials who don't hold federal entry permits, in a bid to help the industry's employers repel unauthorised workplace visits.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected another employer application to create a modern enterprise award rather than be bound by a sector-wide modern award.
Oil and gas companies are pushing the federal government to introduce special greenfields agreements lasting more than five years for "major" projects involving at least $50m in capital spending and to boost certainty by giving employers an automatic right to an arbitrated extension of the deals.
The SDA has successfully appealed against fast food and hair & beauty industry employers having greater flexibility in compensating employees for working on public holidays.
An employee who lodged an unfair dismissal claim one day late after initially making a complaint about his sacking to the Fair Work Ombudsman has failed to overturn the FWC's refusal to extend time.
A company granted a broad Victorian Supreme Court order to curb a picket line at its warehouse remains at loggerheads with the NUW over its push for a new enterprise agreement.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected an anti-bullying application from a paid carer, ruling he was not a "worker" under the new laws, while also outlining other arrangements that would fall outside the jurisdiction.
Ahead of a full Federal Court hearing next month of Toyota's appeal against a ruling that it breached its enterprise agreement when it pushed for changes, the FWC has found that a "no extra claims" clause in a Tasmanian energy agreement is invalid and therefore no barrier to the employer's application to vary the deal.
A five-member full bench of the Fair Work Commission has ruled that employers can validly give extra information to employees at the same time as providing them with a bargaining representation notice, as long as it doesn't form part of the notice.
