More than 1,000 domestic cabin crew at Qantas have authorised protected action including 24-hour strikes and overtime bans in the lead-up to the busy pre-Christmas travel period, as their union resists the airline's push for longer rostered hours and to hold annual pay rises to 3% as inflation soars.
A Smith's Snackfood electrician accused of insubordination and repeatedly refusing to follow directions to assist during a fire has failed to knock out his final warning, but the FWC says his "entirely understandable" application has set his disciplinary record straight.
The FWC has made it clear that Svitzer's planned national lockout at noon tomorrow now won't proceed, but it will decide tomorrow whether to suspend or terminate the protected action.
A FWC full bench will tomorrow consider whether to terminate or suspend tugboat operator Svitzer's planned indefinite national lockout on Friday, after the company told Vice President Adam Hatcher it is not prepared to delay it and does not believe conciliation will help.
In a significant ruling on the wording of strike ballots, a FWC full bench has found that the Commission should not dictate which questions can be posed or how they are framed.
Towage company Svitzer is set to lock out its harbour tugboat workforce, claiming it has been forced into it by continuing disruptive protected action by three maritime unions.
RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan says the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill is an "Orwellian attack" worse than Work Choices that will reduce workers' ability to strike, tear the BOOT apart and diminish the voice of employees and employers while doing nothing for casuals or wages.
Despite Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke's reluctance to hold back parts of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill and its many "positive reforms", a leading labour law and IR academic says drafting issues and crossbench concerns will make fast passage a challenge.
A court has told the RTBU it will have to wait until next year to learn whether it might be exposed to damages after Sydney Trains workers bargaining for a new deal gave customers "free rides" as part of industrial action over a six-week period.
In what looms as a showdown over BHP's in-house labour hire operation, the miner's Queensland coal workforce has overwhelmingly voted to take industrial action in pursuit of a new deal built around job security.
