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".
The FWC has renewed the entry permit of CFMMEU construction and general division WA branch president and organiser Vinnie Molina, on the condition that he undertake "emotional management" training to prevent a recurrence of infractions for which he has been fined almost $17,000 since 2012.
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.
The Australian Federation of Employers and Industries is calling on the FWC to dismiss the Independent Education Union's equal pay claim on behalf of early childhood teachers, drawing on an expert report to attack its use of primary school teachers and engineers as comparators.
The Registered Organisations Commission has initiated a prosecution of the AWU's Victorian branch and its former secretary, Cesar Melhem, for allegedly failing to remove 2,000 unfinancial members from the books over a five-year period through to 2013.
The ACTU will today release a jobs policy that calls for an end to public sector wage caps and pay freezes, along with calling time on the use of "illegitimate" fixed-term contracts in government jobs.
