BHP Billiton has stepped up pressure over a bargaining deadlock involving tug boat crews in Port Hedland, warning it is “actively pursuing” legal options to prevent industrial action.
The need for employers to consider the individual circumstances of employees taking industrial action before they institute disciplinary action has been demonstrated in a FWC finding that a company unfairly dismissed a crane driver who belatedly joined an unlawful stop-work meeting.
A senior IR lawyer has told the HR Nicholls Society the Fair Work Act should be amended to ban protected industrial action that has serious consequences and to remove entirely the rights of high income earners to strike, in a presentation predicting the decline of the MUA's power and influence.
The FWBC has lodged new Federal Court action alleging coercion by the CFMEU's WA construction branch and officials at the $1.2 billion New Children's Hospital project in Perth last year, its third prosecution relating to the site.
Tugboat workers in Port Hedland, the outlet for much of Australia's iron ore exports, have endorsed legally protected industrial action in pursuit of improved pay and conditions in a new agreement.
The Federal Court has ordered the CFMEU to stop blocking access to a major Sydney apartment project, pending the full hearing of the developer's claim that the union has breached secondary boycott laws.
The FWC has ordered the TWU to postpone member-endorsed industrial action against Linfox Armaguard because the vagueness of the notices to the company would have required it to respond with "extreme measures" such as organising flying squads to replace workers.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has clarified the circumstances in which the tribunal can use its own-motion powers to impose restrictions on unions that have abused their entry rights.
Patrick Stevedores has won the latest round in its continuing battles with the MUA over the automation of its Port Botany terminal, with the Fair Work Commission refusing to interfere with its decisions on workforce modelling, selection and redundancy, after rejecting union claims that it failed to consult.
FWBC advisory board chair John Lloyd says he is "surprised" the ACCC does not have enough evidence to launch a prosecution against the CFMEU for taking secondary boycott action against concrete supplier Boral.
