Industrial action/disputes page 75 of 81

A five-day strike at Mermaid Marine's Dampier supply base has emerged as a test of how employers and employees adapt to the winding down of major offshore resources construction projects.

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The MUA has given notice of five consecutive 24-hour stoppages at the Dampier supply base operated by Mermaid Marine Australia, starting from Wednesday.

The Fair Work Commission has rejected a protected action ballot application by a union seeking to regulate the use of labour hire, after noting conflicting full bench authorities on what constitutes a "reasonable belief" that a claim contains permitted matters only.

In the first real IR test of the post-July 1 Senate's precarious balance of power, Palmer United Party senators voted with their Coalition colleagues last night to preserve, by one vote, the rights of the WA government and third parties to ask the Fair Work Commission to terminate damaging industrial action.

The battle over shorter work rosters for fly-in, fly-out workers on resource projects looks set to spread to Chevron's $54 billion Gorgon LNG project.

The ACTU says it is "unhelpful" when law firms provide advice to employers based more on their legal rights than the best way to resolve a dispute.

Senior Victorian Government Minister Robert Clark has told the HR Nicholls Society that he has drawn on all three of his portfolios to combat bad behaviour in the building industry and has flagged changes to strengthen the guidelines for contractors seeking state government work.

Adding campaign material to company correspondence, answering customer inquiries with automated messages about bargaining, and placing slogans on company cars are all valid forms of industrial action, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

A new report from a major employment law firm predicts that the Senate will pass the Abbott Government's Fair Work Act and building industry amendments, suggests the next reforms will be limits on industrial action and productivity requirements for enterprise agreements, and highlights the lower than expected activity in the FWC's anti-bullying jurisdiction.