The Federal Court has found that the CFMEU unlawfully coerced construction joint venturers when it threatened to take industrial action on a "national scale" and bring about "Armageddon" if they sought to enforce an anti-strike order.
The CFMEU says the construction watchdog prosecuted its national secretary, Michael O'Connor, on the basis of flimsy evidence, in an effort to politically embarrass his brother, shadow workplace relations minister Brendan O'Connor.
FWC accepts PC report as submission rather than evidence; Heerey report due at end of month; Patrick talks continuing; Productivity portfolio dropped in Turnbull's reshuffle; and MUA tells members not to respond to FWO overtures.
CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon will go to a contested committal hearing in March next year on the blackmail charges brought by the Royal Commmission police taskforce over the 2013 Boral concrete bans.
The FWC has refused to issue an entry permit to a CFMEU official who disrupted major Queensland construction projects this year when he visited them without authorisation.
Senior FWC member Anna Booth is today chairing negotiations between Hutchison Ports Australia and the MUA on a framework for a voluntary redundancy program the company will offer to employees in an enterprise deal that the parties have agreed to finalise by November 16.
The CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch will pay up to $9 million in damages and costs to Boral and has given an undertaking that it won't renew its blackban on the company's concrete supplies, under a settlement deal announced today.
Hutchison and the MUA are today discussing a resolution of the ongoing dispute over the late night sacking of 97 Port Botany and Brisbane stevedoring workers via email and text message.
The MUA has told the FWC that sacked stevedoring workers at Hutchison's Port Botany terminal, who last night temporarily won their jobs back, have been unable to do so because security guards are preventing access to the site.