A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
A full Federal Court majority has acceded to an SDA bid to overturn the approval of an ALDI deal, finding the FWC failed to establish that it was genuinely agreed and mistakenly held that a "make good" clause created an enforceable right to payments equal to or above those in the award.
The FWC has knocked out United Voice's bid to review copies of documents supporting an enterprise agreement application it suspected of "undercutting" employees' conditions and not being genuinely agreed, observing the union was trying to do the Commission's job.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash will intervene before the Fair Work Commission if any attempt is made to seek FWC approval of the new enterprise agreement for Victoria's Country Fire Authority.
Former Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger has told a Senate inquiry that getting rid of bargaining altogether in the federal public sector would improve productivity.
Victoria's volunteer firefighters have won further discovery of documents from the Country Fire Authority, in a case that considered whether dispute proceedings in the Fair Work Commission are covered by "without prejudice" privilege.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will put a new offer to its employees in the wake of the Fair Work Commission's decision to terminate industrial action at airports across the country and move towards arbitration of a new agreement.
The UFU's proposed High Court bid to overturn the CFA legislation is "misconceived and likely to fail", according to Employment Minister Michaelia Cash, who is confident the new law will survive any challenge.
An FWC presidential member has found that despite some "prevailing contemporary opinion to the contrary" it is "illogical" to review employees' rosters or individual circumstances when assessing whether an agreement passes the BOOT.
