Awards/agreements page 13 of 140

BHP has abandoned its latest pursuit of an agreement for maintenance workers at its in-house labour hire arm after conceding it failed to properly explain how a proposed "regional hub model" would operate.

Unions are calling on Chevron's Gorgon and Wheatstone workers to again reject a unilateral agreement offer and instead "lock in behind a 100% 'yes' vote" for industrial action, as offshore workers join their onshore colleagues in considering strikes at key LNG facilities.

In a significant decision on directors' liability for underpayments, a court has found that although the co-founder of Chatime was unaware the bubble-tea chain was in breach of workplace laws, he understood enough about award obligations around casual and weekend penalty rates to be considered complicit.

Woolworths has failed in its bid to vary the Retail Award to "clarify" that the instrument covers its burgeoning online fulfilment operations, avoiding potentially significant knock-on effects for the e-commerce, road transport and distribution industries.

The RBA will put its bargaining offer directly to employees this month, governor Philip Lowe told an inquiry this morning, after failing to reach agreement with FSU.

ACCI has secured more time for interveners to make their views known on single interest multi-employer bargaining provisions that the IEU's WA branch is testing in a bid to compel negotiations on behalf of general and education support workers in Catholic schools.

The UFU's Victorian branch will press ahead with an application under the Secure Jobs intractable bargaining provisions, despite receiving a long-awaited pay offer covering thousands of firefighters.

The Australian Industry Group has weighed into the early childhood education and care sector supported bargaining test case to tell the FWC it is not its job to "rubber stamp" applications even if all parties desire it and to warn of significant implications for those who might be "selectively excluded" but risk being roped in later.

A FWC full bench has trimmed a union-sought extension to three zombie deals covering more than 500 IT workers after factoring in the Secure Jobs legislation's inherent "policy preference" for agreements negotiated under the Fair Work Act.

FWC President Adam Hatcher will convene a directions hearing on Wednesday for what might be the first substantive test of the Secure Jobs' intractable bargaining declaration provisions, after the United Firefighters Union sought to break an impasse with Fire Rescue Victoria over wage rises for thousands of firefighters.