Multi-employer bargaining and agreements page 6 of 6

The Fair Work Commission is missing its internal deadlines for approving enterprise agreements as it copes with an increasing number of complex deals that might need undertakings.

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.

After clashing over workload protections for teachers and support workers in more than 500 NSW and ACT Catholic schools, the Independent Education Union is seeking to take industrial action and negotiate agreements directly with 11 dioceses rather than make the multi-enterprise agreement sought by the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations.

The Fair Work Commission has resumed hearing another round of deadlocked pay talks involving Victorian firefighters, threatening more political problems for the Andrews Labor government.

The Turnbull Government granted FWBC director Nigel Hadgkiss new powers soon before calling the federal election, in a bid to stop builders and contractors agreeing to "union-friendly" clauses in enterprise agreements.

The FWC has granted the Independent Education Union an additional 30 days to coordinate protected industrial action across more than 170 Queensland Catholic schools, after rejecting an employer proposal to limit the period to just 14 days following school holidays.

Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.