In a significant decision on the FWC's power to deal with clashes between agreements and state laws, a tribunal member has found that jurisdiction was established by a combination of health and safety considerations and the absence of legislative reference to exclusive arbitrators.
Bench says employer's "bland" description no help to BOOT assessment; FWC takes chainsaw to gardener's sacking; and Tribunal rejects bid to require witness to appear in person.
In a significant addition to the jurisprudence around "arrangements" between transferring businesses, the FWC has rejected union arguments that the urgent use of an old employer's pathology equipment after a midnight handover should lead to continuing employees being retained on their existing, more generous enterprise agreement.
An FWC full bench has reserved its decision in a case that looms as a significant test of what constitutes a new activity for the purposes of making a greenfields agreement.
The Fair Work Commission acceded to a bid by mining giants to terminate a coal loading agreement after concluding that a system of "self-directed" work teams that constrains management prerogative "needs to go".
Esso Australia is seeking to prevent the Fair Work Commission from making a workplace determination for its Bass Strait oil and gas operations, arguing its legal basis has been "fatally undermined" by a recent High Court ruling.
The South Australian branch of the AWU has refused to participate in a hearing into a major grain company's successful agreement termination bid, telling the FWC it has "no confidence" in a legal process for employer terminations that unfairly bolsters their bargaining position.
The Fair Work Commission has blocked an attempt by 83 employees of an oil and gas refinery at Geelong from resigning en masse as members of an in-house Fire Auxiliary Team in a disagreement over safety and training.
In a decision where the employer's case was embarrassingly "scuttled" by its own witness, a senior FWC member has found that Ausgrid failed to inform four safety specialists during job interviews that they wouldn't be receiving an allowance due to them under the relevant agreement.
