The CPSU and Department of Border Protection return to the FWC next week for conciliation of their draft workplace determination, while employees of three APS agencies have again rejected offers.
A tribunal has ordered two male employees to resume standard business hours from next month after it upheld an employer's decision to boost operational efficiency by ending a long-standing flexible work arrangement that allowed them to leave early enough to pick up their children from school.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is to put forward a draft workplace determination to the FWC by this Friday and the CPSU will then have a fortnight to respond.
Former Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger has told a Senate inquiry that getting rid of bargaining altogether in the federal public sector would improve productivity.
Together Queensland has failed to bring forward the closing dates of protected action ballots at hospitals across the state after the State IRC found it failed to make a convincing case for a shorter timeframe.
The FWC has made broad recommendations for "corrective action" at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority after it dismissed an employee's bid for an anti-bullying order but observed that interpersonal dysfunction within his team could have the "severest consequences".
Victoria's public sector nurses and midwives have overwhelmingly accepted a four-year deal that aims to achieve pay parity with their better-remunerated NSW counterparts and secures a further three wage increases in the next-generation agreement.
The Turnbull Government has accused ABC management of breaching the public sector bargaining policy, expressing "utmost concern" after a new enterprise agreement covering 5000 employees was voted up this week.
