The ruling UK Conservative Party will lift the attendance threshold for strike ballots, impose a three month limit on industrial action and clamp down on picketing if it wins next year's election, while Britain's peak union body has called on the government to introduce online voting.
The Productivity Commission in a new report has repeated its call for governments to adopt Victorian-style procurement guidelines to regulate substandard IR conduct in the construction industry, but has warned they might need to be modified to avoid a clash with the Fair Work Act.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected stevedore DP World's bid for orders at its troubled Fremantle terminal, holding that while "the attributes of a cooperative and productive workforce may have been missing in the past", there was no evidence industrial action was taking place or planned.
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.
The MUA pushed ahead with a 24-hour strike at Tidewater Marine today, ahead of the broader dispute over bargaining in the offshore oil and gas service sector heading back to the Fair Work Commission.
The Federal Court has endorsed an agreement for the MUA and two of its Sydney Branch officials to pay $41,000 in penalties to stevedores DP World for unlawful industrial action the union took in response to the company's plans to dismiss an employee who had been on long term leave.
The FWBC has included CFMEU construction and general division national secretary Dave Noonan in its fourth prosecution over the $1.2 billion Perth Children's Hospital project.
The construction watchdog says it pursuing action against 25 building workers who owe penalties of $135,625 dating from unlawful industrial action on the North-West shelf gas project in 2008.
The Fair Work Commission's decision to temporarily halt a planned 48-hour strike at Tidewater Marine took into account that an MUA official was unavailable to give evidence in person to the tribunal.
The Fair Work Commission has issued an interim order to prevent a planned 48-hour strike by MUA members employed in the offshore oil and gas industry by Tidewater Marine.
