The ACCC's recent heightened focus on the building industry might be bearing fruit, after the Federal Court found this week that the CFMMEU induced and had knowing involvement in major construction company J Hutchinson's unlawful boycott of a non-union waterproofing subcontractor, the Federal Court has ruled.
A Federal Court judge has accepted that the CFMMEU's offer to foot the bill for external training of its officials amounted to exhibiting enough contrition to keep a lid on penalties for entry breaches.
The Federal Court has criticised the ABCC's "misrepresentation" of evidence in pleadings and a media release, concluding the watchdog bore some responsibility for a subsequent report in a national newspaper that wrongly stated that a CFMMEU organiser made a "throat-slitting" gesture to a truck driver.
A judge has walked the fine line between factoring in the CFMMEU's history of legal transgressions and imposing a sanction proportionate to the breach by adding $10,000 to penalties levied on the union after an official blew cigarette smoke in an ER coordinator's face.
A Westpac manager accused of directing s-xual comments and inappropriate GIFs to female colleagues in online team meetings claims in an adverse action case that his sacking was in fact motivated by his own complaints of age discrimination, bullying and overwork.
Employsure has revealed that the ACCC rejected a $3.3 million offer to settle its false advertising prosecution that led to the Federal Court awarding the IR advisor costs of almost $900,000 but then hitting it with a $1 million penalty.
McDonald's has been hit with a second Federal Court case over its alleged failure to provide paid rest breaks, with a RAFFWU-backed class action claiming thousands of past and present workers are potentially owed millions over the "systemic" issue.
The financial implications of the ABCC's Pattinson High Court case being heard today have been reinforced by the Federal Court's latest ruling against the CFMMEU, a judge acknowledging that while the $460,000 fine factored in the union's long history of contraventions it still needed to be "proportionate" to the breaches involved.
The FWO alleges in court proceedings filed yesterday that Coles owes its managers about $100 million more than it has made allowance for following internal payroll audits looking at the underpayments.
