Queensland employers are urging the State and Federal governments to take responsibility for millions of dollars in backpay claims that could be pursued by apprentices after an FWC full bench held that an old State award that continued to dictate their pay was superseded three years ago.
Onshore workers for Esso's Bass Strait oil and gas operations have voted up a second replacement enterprise agreement, leaving only the terms of the third deal, for offshore, to be arbitrated by the FWC.
The number of enterprise agreements terminated by the FWC has accelerated dramatically in recent years, particularly for relatively small union-negotiated deals in the construction and manufacturing sectors, according to the Department of Employment.
The AMMA has formally asked Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to restore "common sense" to agreement-making after an FWC full bench accepted the MUA's argument that defects in bargaining notices meant it had to quash the approval of two non-union deals.
Rio Tinto has agreed to sell its NSW coal interests – including the Coal & Allied operations that were at the centre of the late 1990s battle of the IR "titans" – to Chinese interests for $3.2 billion ($US2.45 billion).
The FWC has stayed the termination of the enterprise agreement for the Loy Yang power station and coal mine, conditional on CFMEU members refraining from taking any further industrial action until the appeal is decided.
The tone around deadlocked negotiations over a new agreement at Parmalat's Echuca processing plant has shifted dramatically over the past 24 hours, both sides believing a resolution is near after agreeing to divide up and rework contentious clauses before reconvening early next week.
The FWC has approved an agreement for a franchisee of fast food chain Oporto, after it gave undertakings to lift its base rates of pay by up to a "remarkable" 26%, leaving employees more than 20% better off than under the award.
An FWC full bench has held that an employer is entitled to make workers redundant as part of a restructure to manage loss or damage caused by protected industrial action.
The FWC has declined AGL's request for an order to stop what it suspects is industrial action by employees at its Loy Yang A power plant in Victoria after it was unable to secure enough employees to work overtime, leading to the company being unable to bring two of its four power generating units back online on the weekend.
