Agreements and bargaining page 54 of 175

The CFMMEU has failed in an interlocutory court bid to enter tunnelling sites at Brisbane's $5 billion Cross River Rail Project, in the midst of a demarcation dispute with the AWU.

The AMWU claims it has won wage increases of at least 9.8% over three years for workers at a McCain Foods potato processing plant in Tasmania, as it pushes to bring their rates into line with their mainland counterparts.

In a significant ruling on academic free speech, a university lecturer has been given a second chance to challenge his sacking for superimposing a swastika on an Israeli flag after a full Federal Court found insufficient weight had been attached to an agreement's 'intellectual freedom' clause.

The Federal Court has for the second time this month found that government-owned Airservices Australia failed to meet agreement obligations to consult over changes affecting air traffic controllers, despite its "valiant" attempt to distinguish between 'policies' and 'procedures'.

The CPSU has stepped up its criticism of the Morrison Government's public sector wages policy, saying it demands that workers sign up to "unknown" pay rises beyond the first year of new enterprise deals.

Stevedore Qube has accused the MUA of "undertaking surveillance" of non-union employees it photographed working without masks onboard a ship in Fremantle last weekend.

A senior FWC member has after highlighting the tribunal's significant efforts to aid compliance with agreement approval requirements thrown out an application made by an employer that thrice failed to give "intelligible" undertakings.

A FWC member has sailed past a union lawyer's caution not to interfere in the wording of a proposed strike ballot, finding that an "ambiguous" question should be deleted to avoid perplexing employees voting on it.

The FWC has rejected the CFMMEU's attempt to intervene in the approval of a two-worker deal it had no history of involvement in, dismissing concerns that the agreement was as part of a corporate "ruse" designed to cover employees of the business's far larger parent company.

The FWC has rejected a chicken processor's argument that it should extend notice of the AMWU's proposed 12-hour maintenance strikes from three to seven days to ensure it doesn't breach RSPCA animal welfare guidelines and legislated standards, but has criticised the union for the "commercial unreality" of its suggestions about the defensive measures the company might undertake.