Mining giant Thiess has had a proposed enterprise agreement knocked back because it was not genuinely agreed, with the FWC finding the company chose the three employees who participated in the ballot to "manipulate" the result.
Queensland employers are urging the State and Federal governments to take responsibility for millions of dollars in backpay claims that could be pursued by apprentices after an FWC full bench held that an old State award that continued to dictate their pay was superseded three years ago.
The number of enterprise agreements terminated by the FWC has accelerated dramatically in recent years, particularly for relatively small union-negotiated deals in the construction and manufacturing sectors, according to the Department of Employment.
The AMMA has formally asked Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to restore "common sense" to agreement-making after an FWC full bench accepted the MUA's argument that defects in bargaining notices meant it had to quash the approval of two non-union deals.
ALDI has secured a stay on a full Federal Court order overturning the approval of a controversial enterprise agreement covering employees at its new distribution centre in South Australia until its application for special leave to the High Court is determined later in the year.
The FWC has approved an agreement for a franchisee of fast food chain Oporto, after it gave undertakings to lift its base rates of pay by up to a "remarkable" 26%, leaving employees more than 20% better off than under the award.
It would have been preferable for an FWC member to have provided brief reasons for refusing to hear a non-party union's arguments against approval of an enterprise agreement, and she should have acceded to its request for access to the employer's statutory declarations, a full bench has found.
The FWC has approved an enterprise agreement despite its "grave reservations" about the appropriateness of the company's ER manager obtaining a list of employees who abstained from the ballot for the deal and questioning them about their vote.
An FWC presidential member has approved a bakery franchise agreement with undertakings, while emphasising that the BOOT involves a "balancing exercise" rather than a line-by-line comparison with underlying awards.
An FWC full bench has confirmed the Commission must consider the most current material available when determining whether a majority of employees want to bargain for an enterprise agreement.
