Productivity Commission inquiries page 4 of 5

The Australian Shipowners Association has told the Productivity Commission that it is important to understand that the starting point for the bargaining changes it is seeking is the "disproportionate industrial power" wielded by the maritime unions.

The peak body for the hydrocarbons sector is pushing to extend to an unprecedented six years the terms of agreements made for the construction phase of major projects.

The licenced aircraft engineers' union is urging the "liberalisation" of union coverage rules, saying that if they didn't exist at all, the industrial unrest that fuelled the bargaining battle between the union and Qantas might have been diminished before the airline dramatically shut down its operations and locked out its workforce in 2011.

BHP Billiton has nominated the Coalition's right of entry and greenfields amendments, stalled in the Senate, as its first priorities for IR change, telling the Productivity Commission it also wants restrictions on agreement content, faster relief from industrial action and a wound-back adverse action regime.

The Department of Employment has crunched the numbers on Australia's 122 modern awards, finding that just half provide for weekend penalty loadings, and 26 rule them out.

ASX top 100 company Asciano, which estimates that its subsidiary Patrick's last bruising bargaining round cost it $21 million, is calling for a greater role for the Fair Work Commission in "agreement facilitation".

There are "promising" early results from a 12-month pilot program that is seeking to speed-up the appeals process in the FWC and reduce parties' costs, according to the tribunal's president, Justice Iain Ross.

The former Labor Government's changes to the modern award objective have made it impossible for 24/7 industries such as hospitality to successfully prosecute cases to abolish penalty rates and should be scrapped, according to the peak body for restaurant employers.

The head of Networks NSW, which owns the power "poles and wires" entities that are to be privatised if the Coalition wins Saturday's NSW election, is pushing for FWC approval of agreements to be conditional on them undergoing an objective "productivity test" and is backing calls for the creation of a separate FWC appeals jurisdiction.

Just months after retiring as a senior Fair Work Commission member, Brendan McCarthy has launched an extraordinary attack on the tribunal's role and operation, claiming it is not the appropriate body to establish minimum standards, its members lack economic competence, and it misallocates resources.