A FWC full bench has confirmed it cannot accept undertakings to cure zombie deals' BOOT-related deficiencies when considering whether to extend their life, while also refusing to take on board undertakings the tribunal recently endorsed when it transferred a 2006 Work Choices agreement.
Legal limits on the scope of bargaining mean that safety laws might provide a better avenue to address workplace climate change impacts than using enterprise agreements, according to an IR law academic.
A union involved in more than 20% of the FWC's s448A compulsory conciliation conferences since they started in June says they come with a significant "risk versus reward overlay" that threatens to derail protected action and an "urgent fix" is required.
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".