After announcing the withdrawal of two union friendly administrator interpretations issued by the Obama Administration, the US Department of Labor delivered another blow to unions by announcing that it will take public comment beginning June 12, 2017, on a proposed rule to rescind the Obama-era version of the persuader rule which requires companies to report
union
US DOL Persuader Rule permanently benched
Hailed by the US Department of Labor as a regulatory change to promote transparency and to help employees make well-informed decisions about union representation, the Department of Labor’s final rule on reporting union persuader activities has been permanently blocked by Texas US District Court Judge Sam R. Cummings.
The new rule attempted to narrow…
A watershed case on the frontiers of union turf
Earlier this month, a unanimous Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) handed down a decision that is set to lay the landscape for the interpretation of union eligibility rules into the future.[1] In its reasons, the Full Bench provided critical guidance on how union eligibility rules should be interpreted. In particular, the Full Bench considered that the position adopted by the appellant, the Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union (RTBU), during the award modernisation process was instructive.
The decision is significant, upholding long-standing industrial arrangements for the representation of locomotive drivers and rail workers in Australia’s strategically important Pilbara region and the mining industry more generally.