Industrial action/disputes page 8 of 81

The income and compensation caps for unfair dismissal claims are set to increase on Saturday, along with filing fees for a range of other applications.

Resources giant Santos has been ordered to pay $65,000 to a worker sacked for telling a contractor to "take a sickie" during a strike, the FWC finding the dismissal harsh after weighing his long and unblemished career.

The FWC's national practice leader for bargaining has started the clock on compulsory conciliation while a strike vote is conducted, having also used one of the first applications under new workplace laws to suggest that while the "recency" of the provisions made a case for endorsing an unapproved ballot agent, the bar will be higher in future.

NTEU members have voted to escalate industrial action, including another state-wide strike, if Victorian universities maintain their refusal to of union demands to replace most casual jobs with permanent positions.

A judge has overcome his irritation at being asked to rule on an "arid debate" to find the now-defunct ABCC did not exceed its powers when it initiated its first case against the CFMMEU's maritime division over alleged death threats against workers attempting to cross a picket line.

The UFU's Victorian branch has won the first round of Federal Court proceedings in which it alleges a senior State Labor minister engaged in coercive conduct while intervening in a case before the FWC.

As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.

Law firm Ashurst says the looming multi-employer bargaining laws might explain the results of a survey in which 65% of employers say they intend to initiate agreement negotiations in the next six months.

Stevedoring giant Qube has failed to overturn a ruling that it should have slashed the minimum number of hours salaried dockworkers needed to work in a year after withholding their pay over 11 weeks of protected industrial action.

The FWC has focused on the difference between "probability" and "possibility" in its reasons for rejecting a bid by a company providing search and rescue services to terminate protected industrial action on the basis that it could endanger lives.