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.
The FWC has thrown out an agreement approval application because a "show of hands" vote counted by a manager failed to ensure confidentiality, but has confirmed such ballots are permissible.
The SDA is calling on the FWC to use its powers to unilaterally amend a proposed Sephora agreement if it refuses to provide undertakings tackling an allegedly "diabolical" overtime pay freeze it contends the beauty retailer did not explain to workers.
The FWC has issued a single interest employer authorisation for two regional Victorian councils, in the first full bench ruling to weigh whether it is barred from approving multi-employer negotiations when a union and an employer party have allegedly agreed in writing to bargain for a proposed single-enterprise agreement.
A FWC full bench has quashed the approval of a company's CEPU-lodged agreement, found to have been voted up by two workers before it was used to cover AMWU members in a process "entirely lacking in authenticity and moral authority".
The FWC has taken the unusual step of allowing an employer's HR manager on behalf of workers to sign off on an agreement not backed by the CFMEU's construction division, after accepting evidence that employees were "reluctant" to put their names to the deal.
