The FWC today gave a strong signal that it is anxious to bring to a head Coles employee Penny Vickers' bid to terminate the supermarket giant's enterprise agreement, acknowledging criticism that the case had dragged on before granting the night-fill worker an extension to supply supporting documents.
A lower court has asked the Federal Court to distinguish between "jurisdiction" and "powers" after wrestling with the question in a case where a union accused an employer of breaching its enterprise agreement and the employer counter-claimed that the agreement was not genuinely agreed.
Loy Yang power station and mine workers have conceded the possibility of forced redundancies and increased use of contractors in exchange for annual 5% pay rises in voting up a new enterprise agreement with operators AGL Energy.
The CFMEU will stage a national day of protest next week as tensions rise in the construction industry over the coming deadline for having code-compliant agreements to avoid being barred from winning Commonwealth-funded contracts.
An FWC full bench has found it "reasonably arguable" that Coles should have known a 2014 agreement negotiated with the SDA could not satisfy the BOOT when it applied for Commission approval.
Upmarket stationery retailer kikki.K has won approval to end a dated labour hire agreement that did not include weekend and public holiday penalty rates for casual workers.
An FWC full bench has found a tribunal member denied a university natural justice when she amended exam markers' pay rates due to ambiguities in its agreement, but failed to consider the tertiary institution's views on the changes.
A proposed agreement struck with three maintenance workers prior to securing a major mining contract is back on the table after an FWC full bench overturned its rejection, finding its terms only required workers to perform preparatory duties in connection with the project to be covered by it.
A Senate inquiry has recommended passage of a bill that scraps mandatory four-yearly award review and has backed the FWC's proposal to backdate provisions allowing the tribunal to correct minor errors in bargaining notices.
An FWC full bench will next month deal with an attempt by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union to intervene in a bid to terminate the 2011 Coles Supermarkets agreement, before a 10-day hearing of the substantive case in October.
