The union representing coal mining staff and supervisors has welcomed today's full Federal Court endorsement of the FWC's authorisation of multi-employer bargaining with three coal-mining giants, even though it has now chosen to pursue single enterprise deals.
Burger chain Grill'd is making its second attempt to win approval of a national agreement, while the SDA's application to terminate the nominally expired deal depriving workers of award entitlements remains unresolved.
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.
