The Victorian Labor government has flagged it will aim for modest annual pay rises of 2%, setting the scene for an arm-wrestle with public sector unions in bargaining over a series of major enterprise agreements.
The Greens intend to use their leverage in the Senate to press a future Federal Labor Government to permit industry-wide bargaining, enshrine the right to strike and remove restrictions on agreement content.
The CPSU says it will recommend Bureau of Meteorology workers reject a new agreement offer that relegates delegates' access rights to a side deal and makes them subject to management approval, vowing in the meantime to keep inserting campaign messages into the bureau's forecasts.
The FWC has found it reasonably arguable that the NUW is involved in a coordinated approach to involve itself in bargaining at Linfox despite being ineligible to represent its tanker drivers, issuing production orders regarding a non-Linfox NUW delegate who seeks to be a bargaining representative.
Pilots at budget airline Tigerair have warned that planned industrial action from Friday to Sunday could cause flight delays and cancellations, but unions say it could be back off the table by 5pm today if the employer improves its pay offer and budges on rostering, leave and parking costs.
The AMWU has agreed to end an eight-week strike at a Melbourne envelope plant after the employer, Australian Paper, gave ground on two of three demands.
APS Commissioner John Lloyd denies that a new public sector bargaining policy contains an added push towards individual flexibility arrangements, but the CPSU says its "explicit encouragement" along with the extension of a 2% pay rise cap undermines bargaining, wages and conditions.
Hardline employer-clientele law firm Seyfarth Shaw developed an aggressive bargaining strategy for Victoria's Country Fire Authority that aimed to replace a culture of UFU "veto and control" with "consultation and influence", documents published by the Senate reveal.
