Agreements and bargaining page 168 of 176

The CPSU has applied for a protected action ballot at the biggest federal public sector agency, the Department of Human Services - its first such application since bargaining began under the Coalition's restrictive new public sector IR framework.

Despite acknowledging the convention that it is a "brave or foolish" FWC member who refuses to follow a full bench ruling, a commissioner has done just that on the way to granting a union's application for a scope order for an agreement to cover workers at one of a building company's four sites.

The Fair Work Commission has held that a Victorian water authority made a "further claim" that contravened its enterprise agreement when it removed a policy providing for employees' personal use of its cars.

The Fair Work Commission has released its fourth benchbook for public comment, covering enterprise bargaining and agreement making.

The mere fact that bargaining is "difficult" is unlikely to justify granting a low-paid authorisation for a multi-employer agreement, a failed application by United Voice in the security industry demonstrates.

The NUW has demonstrated majority support for it to bargain for an enterprise agreement to cover warehouse employees at one of Cotton On's two Australian distribution centres – despite the company arguing that a single agreement should cover the workers at both sites.

They reached their last bargaining deal only after a bloody industrial battle that culminated in a fleet grounding, but this time round Qantas and the ALAEA have struck an in-principle agreement without disputation that delivers each side some significant wins - including the reversal of redundancies and a partial pay-freeze.

The MUA is using its industrial muscle to extract up to $1 million from employers for training funds that the Heydon Royal Commission acknowledges are legitimate, the inquiry heard today.

The impact on public sector bargaining of the implied constitutional limitation on Commonwealth interference with state governments is still not well enough understood, according to long-serving CPSU Victoria secretary Karen Batt.

Employment Minister Eric Abetz has declared that a frozen wage is better than no job, while refusing to comment on pay freeze deals being struck by individual employers.