The MUA delegate whose loss of casual stevedoring shifts sparked last year's Webb Dock blockade was earlier mistakenly provided with a letter by the container terminal operator's HR-IR director declaring him a full-timer, the Federal Court has been told.
Workplace Minister Craig Laundy has been granted permission to intervene in the approval of a new enterprise agreement covering the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade, despite the UFU's criticism of it as an "unprecedented hijack" of the process.
The FWC has given Arnott's biscuits the go-ahead to introduce urine testing of all employees for drug and alcohol use, while the food giant has agreed to trial a union proposal for workers to take immediate leave without pay if they record a positive from oral or breathalyser self-tests before a shift.
The Fair Work Commission today reaffirmed its view that modest and regular minimum wage increases won't sabotage a robust employment landscape, representing this year's 3.5% hike as an "opportunity to improve relative living standards of the low-paid".
The Fair Work Commission has reserved its decision on whether Federal Workplace Minister Craig Laundy can intervene in the approval of a new enterprise agreement covering the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade, an attempt criticised by the UFU as an "unprecedented hijack" of the process.
Women will make up at least half of all members elected to the Independent Education Union's federal council branches following a rule change that secretary Chris Watt says is a "symbolic" first step that he hopes will prompt its state branches to look at their own structures.
The FWO is seeking to fine the CFMMEU's MUA division more than $3.5 million for unlawful industrial action against Hutchison Ports, using a novel argument that historic contraventions of the same Fair Work Act provision denies the union the benefit of the legislation's single course of conduct mechanism.
The FWC has tossed out for want of jurisdiction an "unprecedented" pay dispute lodged by sacked FAAA national division secretary Andrew Staniforth against Qantas to correct overpayments, with a senior deputy president stating he has never encountered a "stranger industrial proposition".
Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews has pledged to create a new labour inspectorate to police wage underpayments, which will offer a competing state-based jurisdiction to the Commonwealth's Fair Work Ombudsman.
An exploding secondary labour market of people who can't enforce their rights is driving down wages and bargaining power while creating a "tinder box of exploitation", unions have told this year's NSW IR Society conference.
