Woolworths Group breached good faith bargaining obligations by circulating a Big W deal struck with the SDA and the AWU before giving RAFFWU a chance to consider it, but the FWC has refused to delay the vote as it would not significantly alter the offer.
A FWC full bench has refused to extend a farm's 16-year-old deal for 12 weeks beyond next month's sunsetting of zombie agreements, describing the application as an effort to pay below-award rates for "one more" onion-picking season.
WA's St John Ambulance has failed to convince the FWC that its agreement requires paramedics who are not the primary carer of a child to clock up a full year of employment before they can access eight days paid leave after a birth or adoption.
A FWC presidential member has taken a harder line on extending notice periods for protected action, rejecting Virgin Australia's bid to increase warnings of strikes and bans from three to seven days, because it would result in diminished worker bargaining power.
A lawyer for early childhood education employers involved in the sector's supported bargaining test case says that for future applications where participants are not as aligned, he suspects it will be a slow, challenging and "very cumbersome process", while a union leader in the case says the FWC is helping to bring the parties together.
The FWC looks set to arbitrate the bargaining deadlock at Fire Rescue Victoria next year, after it scheduled a hearing date next month to hear threshold issues arising from its first intractable bargaining declaration.
A judge has lamented the shortage of "common sense" on display in a case in which a union contends a government agency breached its agreement's secure jobs and consultation provisions when it engaged a roadworks contractor.
In a significant ruling on agreement coverage, a full Federal Court has found that two Catholic school teachers are entitled to pay rises contained in new deals despite resigning before they took effect.
The FWC will allow the Independent Education Union to start preparing evidence to support an intractable bargaining application for Catholic schools in Western Australia, ahead of teachers voting on the employer's third unilateral offer.
