Awards/agreements page 11 of 140

The FWC's national practice leader for bargaining says "almost all" members are issuing directions in addition to attendance orders ahead of compulsory post-PABO conciliations and appear to be regularly making recommendations during the conferences.

The High Court has today unanimously held that Qantas took unlawful adverse action against nearly 2000 former ground crew when it outsourced their jobs at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when their agreements were due to nominally expire.

The Fair Work Act's continuing focus on single-enterprise bargaining, along with weak underpinning awards and supported bargaining's restriction to multi-employer rather than sector-wide bargaining, will limit the new stream's capacity to achieve "decent wages" for low-paid female employees, according to leading IR academics.

The FWC has rejected the HSU's bid to extend a zombie deal for two years, backing the ASU's position in finding it failed the BOOT, and granting only a four month reprieve to negotiate a new agreement.

A logistics company has failed to win approval for a greenfields deal as it only notified the MUA's WA branch despite provisions for future national expansion, and it offers "substantially inferior" pay and conditions.

As Chevron workers prepare to start industrial action this afternoon and the FWC continues week-long talks to resolve the underlying bargaining dispute for its Wheatstone downstream and Gorgon facilities, the tribunal's president will conduct a preliminary hearing next week of the company's bid for an intractable bargaining declaration for its Wheatstone platform.

The FWC will probe potential "wider-scale abuse" of agreement-making under the Fair Work Act after quashing the approval of a Chevron contractor's labour hire deal made with six "employees" in a sham process "entirely lacking in authenticity and moral authority".

The UFU's Victorian branch says the FWC should issue a groundbreaking intractable bargaining declaration to overcome stalled enterprise agreement negotiations with Fire Services Victoria, but it should not allow a post-declaration bargaining period to "undo and revisit" terms that have already been agreed.

A FWC member has issued the "strongest recommendation" for AMWU members at an Ampol refinery to cease industrial action and vote up a new deal, after expressing her view that she lacked the power to convene a second post-PABO compulsory conciliation conference.

A major meat processor that told workers a proposed deal would boost their pay while reducing the rates for future recruits has failed to win approval after the FWC found some fresh starters could in fact earn far more while others would experience a "repugnant" reduction, while the umpire also suggested if the new genuine agreement principles applied, it might not comply.