An FWC presidential member has approved a bakery franchise agreement with undertakings, while emphasising that the BOOT involves a "balancing exercise" rather than a line-by-line comparison with underlying awards.
The AWU suspects that iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals Group is set to move its production workforce onto a newly-approved non-union agreement for a related entity.
Private sector enterprise agreements approved in the September quarter paid an average wage rise of 3.4% a year, after construction deals providing substantial annual increases helped to lifted bargained wage deals out of the doldrums, new Department of Employment data reveals.
WA's Murdoch University has applied to terminate its enterprise agreement, which the NTEU claims could cut academics' pay by 25% to 40% once they fall back onto underlying awards.
The SDA has asked the FWC to put on hold proceedings to terminate the 2011 Coles Supermarkets enterprise agreement while it negotiates a new deal to cover more than 70,000 employees.
Protracted negotiations over oil and gas agreements in the Bass Strait have moved a step closer to arbitration following the Victorian Government's application to terminate bargaining in the face of looming strike action.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
A full Federal Court majority has acceded to an SDA bid to overturn the approval of an ALDI deal, finding the FWC failed to establish that it was genuinely agreed and mistakenly held that a "make good" clause created an enforceable right to payments equal to or above those in the award.
The Federal Court has refused to suspend penalties against 50 workers who walked out to protest a colleague's sacking, fining each individual up to $1,500 for their unlawful industrial action at ExxonMobil's Longford gas conditioning plant last year.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is to put forward a draft workplace determination to the FWC by this Friday and the CPSU will then have a fortnight to respond.
