Hardline employer-clientele law firm Seyfarth Shaw developed an aggressive bargaining strategy for Victoria's Country Fire Authority that aimed to replace a culture of UFU "veto and control" with "consultation and influence", documents published by the Senate reveal.
The CPSU is ramping-up its campaign to break a bargaining deadlock at the Department of Human Services, with rolling stoppages set to start next week, but the department anticipates the effect of the union's action will be "minimal".
After clashing over workload protections for teachers and support workers in more than 500 NSW and ACT Catholic schools, the Independent Education Union is seeking to take industrial action and negotiate agreements directly with 11 dioceses rather than make the multi-enterprise agreement sought by the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations.
The NTEU, which has flagged that it will "substantially revise" its wage claim at Murdoch University, is accusing the institution of walking away from talks in the Fair Work Commission that might in any case be a "mere contrivance" on the way to it pursuing termination of its agreement.
The CPSU and Department of Border Protection return to the FWC next week for conciliation of their draft workplace determination, while employees of three APS agencies have again rejected offers.
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 CFMEU says it will push for members to reject Rio Tinto's latest offer for 700 workers at its Hail Creek coking coal mine, as it accuses the company of using a $10,000 sweetener to push through a proposal not materially different to an offer the workforce rejected in 2014.
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.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will put a new offer to its employees in the wake of the Fair Work Commission's decision to terminate industrial action at airports across the country and move towards arbitration of a new agreement.