The RTBU and ASU will today test whether employers can make deals directly with their employees after the termination of protected action to bypass the subsequent 21 days of negotiations and avoid the ensuing arbitration of an agreement.
Union members employed by Chevron have endorsed draft enterprise agreements covering three major gas projects and agreed to suspend planned industrial action due to resume tomorrow.
Chevron is accusing unions of ignoring a FWC recommendation to halt industrial action set to begin on Thursday while negotiations continue today before Commissioner Bernie Riordan to iron out differences that emerged after the parties reached a settlement on September 22.
DP World is calling on the MUA to call off further protected action at the company's container terminals from Sunday to enable further bargaining negotiations, warning it is actively looking into "alternatives" to maintain services.
A FWC member is recommending "a good deal" to settle a Sydney Water bargaining dispute that would boost wages by 11%, provide a one-off $2000 cost of living payment and facilitate a new classification framework to bust through the utility's "glass ceiling".
Striking Ingham's workers in two states are set to earn an average $100 more a week under an in-principle agreement struck on the back of 24-hour stoppages and a rancorous picket, after the FWC found that it could not make a s418 order to stop the blockade.
The president of a nursing "red union" faces the sack from her hospital job after failing to persuade an appeal court that unauthorised media comments fell under protected industrial activity.
After overseeing three further days of negotiations, FWC member Bernie Riordan says Chevron and unions are "on the precipice" of "historical first agreements" and has urged them to accept by 9am tomorrow his recommendation to resolve the bargaining dispute or risk the settled issues "simply evaporating".
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.
