The CFMEU construction division's Queensland branch has suffered another setback in its continuing quest to penetrate major civil projects in the State, with the FWC's rejection of a deal brokered with an earthmoving company after finding the union's own industrial officer failed to properly explain it to workers.
The FWC has put a global services giant's proposed new catering agreement at a Queensland mine on hold after weighing claims of casuals being parachuted in around voting time against hard evidence that it will cut workers' pay by more than $10,000 a year.
A company that sprang a meeting on workers at which it compelled them to collectively and immediately select bargaining representatives has failed to win approval of a new deal, with the FWC finding the employer "misled" them.
A FWC full bench has decided to park its consideration of whether to bring forward the trigger for consultations in model agreement clauses after employers expressed "alarm" at the prospect of requiring it when proposing to introduce a major change rather than when they make a "definite decision".
Air-conditioning industry employers have continued to queue to be included in a pioneering private sector single-interest agreement cast by the AMWU as a response to "dodgy", low-paid contract work.
A full Federal Court has quashed a first-of-its-kind FWC full bench majority finding that the tribunal has the power to make a workplace determination on contested bargaining matters after an agreement has already won approval.
In a significant judgment on the statutory nature of a "proposed enterprise agreement", a Federal Court has rejected arguments that rail unions lost protection of their industrial action once the bargaining focus changed from a single to a multi-employer deal.
The FWC's edginess over small-cohort deals has come to the fore again after a member exercised his discretion to allow unions to insert themselves in the approval process for an agreement voted up by three workers, despite having no standing as bargaining representatives.
The FWC has refused to approve a Subway franchisee's proposed deal designed to replace a zombie agreement, finding it not genuinely agreed because the employer failed to adequately explain which allowances would be absorbed into the rate of pay, and that penalty and minimum rates would freeze for the life of the agreement.
