In a ruling on little-considered Secure Jobs Act amendments, a FWC full bench has today upheld a decision to allow the Grill'd Norwood deal to continue operating for a further 90 days, finding the agreement's "inferior" conditions "weighty", but the hiatus before termination within the Commission's discretion.
The FWC has closely considered its new discretion to overlook minor procedural or technical shortcomings in making of agreements before finally rejecting a proposed deal it "reluctantly" declined to wave through initially because the employer failed to explain negative aspects for some workers.
The SDA is challenging what it says is the FWC's failure to immediately terminate a long-expired substandard agreement, arguing that it did not properly consider the unfairness to workers when it allowed the deal to continue to operate for a further three months.
In a significant decision on the ambit of intractable bargaining determinations, a FWC full bench has found it has the power to require employers to backpay former workers.
A FWC bench has emphasised the tribunal's need to properly scrutinise proposed agreements in finding that a senior tribunal member failed to follow principles of open justice when refusing to provide a union with the names of applicants for a mining services deal ultimately found to be a sham.
Employers with significant casual workforces have been given a guided tour of new legislative filters for assessing whether proposed deals are genuinely agreed, in a FWC decision focussing on the Fair Work Act's "employed at the time" provision.
The FWC has "reluctantly" found that in focusing only on the positives an employer failed to adequately explain a newly consolidated deal opposed by one branch of the HSU but supported by its embattled Victorian No 1 branch.
Burger chain Grill'd has failed to convince the FWC to approve its enterprise deal, after offering undertakings that would have left some workers $3.10 better off a week, up from 77 cents, while the SDA is seeking to terminate 15 of the company's agreements and is asking it to return to the bargaining table.
Surging demand to join the early childhood education supported bargaining agreement and access its substantial pay increases has spurred the FWC to tailor a more efficient process for handling the "large volume" of applications.
A FWC bench has refused a UFU request to further adjourn its intractable bargaining case with the FRV in an effort to keep the matter "on track" and has scheduled a three-week hearing, 18 months after it became the first vehicle to test the Commission's new deadlock-breaking powers under the Secure Jobs legislation.
