The FWC has taken the UWU to task over a "lack of willingness" to honour an agreement to stay in a designated area of a Woolworths distribution centre canteen after complaints from workers, rejecting assertions the union did not agree to continue the arrangement after a trial.
In what is believed to be the first interlocutory injunction to provide union entry for discussion purposes, the Federal Court has ordered a project head contractor to permit ETU organisers to access labour hire linesworkers on a 900km, $2.2 billion interstate power transmission interconnector.
The ETU has confirmed that it will challenge a Federal Court ruling that "neuters" unions' rights to enter workplaces to organise workers through a restrictive interpretation of provisions allowing access for "discussions" with employees.
Union officials can't use their right to enter premises for discussions with members to gather signatures on petitions or "secure a commitment to a particular course of action in the future", the Federal Court has found, ruling in favour of an employer that blocked access for an organiser who sought workers' backing for a majority support determination.
A court has today imposed fines of 90% of the maximum on the "rogue" construction union and 80% on its Queensland leader for failing to provide 24 hours notice before officials entered a construction site for bargaining discussions with workers, after the head contractor insisted they be held off-site.
The CFMMEU has failed in an interlocutory court bid to enter tunnelling sites at Brisbane's $5 billion Cross River Rail Project, in the midst of a demarcation dispute with the AWU.
The FWC has thrown out a bid by the AMWU to enter the BHP OS training facility near Mackay to hold discussions with about 150 maintenance trainees, finding the union's coverage rule for fitters and engineering trades doesn't extend to the "caterpillar" trainees until they become maintenance associate "butterflies".
The underpayment of migrant workers significantly worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a large Unions NSW audit revealing 88% of a sample of foreign language job ads in the state offered below award wages.
A new McKell Institute report recommends that the Morrison Government implement a national labour-hire licensing scheme, remove entry barriers to enable inspections by unions and redesign the visa system to curb widespread exploitation and wage theft in fruit-picking.
A court has penalised an early learning centre that refused on the basis of an alleged threat to its workers' "health and wellbeing" to allow a union organiser use its staff room to hold discussions, directing her instead to a storage room.
