In a decision highlighting the difference between "genuinely trying to reach agreement" and "good faith bargaining", the FWC has rejected an HSU application for a protected action ballot order and found its own conduct wanting.
The FWC has for the first time retrospectively extended a single interest employer bargaining authorisation, avoiding the need for a group of schools to obtain a ministerial declaration after 14 months of negotiations and a successful second ballot.
The Morrison Government has agreed to drop proposed changes to Better Off Overall Test in the IR Omnibus Bill, which would have given the FWC a temporary power to approve substandard enterprise agreements for employers afflicted by the pandemic.
McDonald's, the sole corporation to make a submission to the Omnibus Bill inquiry, is calling for substantial amendments to casual conversion provisions and the BOOT, indicating the legislation's changes to the latter are insufficient to renew its interest in enterprise bargaining.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation says the Morrison Government's Omnibus IR Bill is "sadly lacking" on a range of key measures, including proposed changes to casual employment and the Better Off Overall Test.
The RBA is warning that wage growth won't be "materially higher" for at least three years, while Centre for Future Work analysis suggests that the proposed Omnibus Bill provision permitting approval of BOOT-failing agreements will further hamper any recovery in pay rises.
An FWC bench has stopped short of overturning the four-month-old approval of a deal but ordered the employer to produce documents previously sought by a union strenuously opposed to it.
The High Court will next month hear robo-stevedore VICT's bid for a finding that MUA delegate Richard Lunt committed an abuse of process when he acted as the "front man" for the union's bid to overturn an enterprise agreement.
The FWC has expressed scepticism in refusing to approve an agreement made with only one employee, rejecting a later claim that the company's director would also be covered.
The SDA has accused Aldi of rushing through replacement deals before current ones nominally expire in order to weaken workers' negotiating position and avoid protected action, after the FWC approved a new regional agreement barely a year into the existing instrument.
