It would have been preferable for an FWC member to have provided brief reasons for refusing to hear a non-party union's arguments against approval of an enterprise agreement, and she should have acceded to its request for access to the employer's statutory declarations, a full bench has found.
The CFMEU expects to lodge an appeal early next week against yesterday's FWC decision to terminate the agreement for AGL Loy Yang's power station and coal mine because of the "intractable" bargaining dispute between the parties.
The FWC has approved an enterprise agreement despite its "grave reservations" about the appropriateness of the company's ER manager obtaining a list of employees who abstained from the ballot for the deal and questioning them about their vote.
The FWC has chastised an employer for distributing a "partisan" majority support ballot notice that discourages employees from voting to start bargaining.
Anglo Coal is facing a seven-figure backpayment, after the High Court refused to grant it special leave to appeal a finding that a subsidiary breached its enterprise agreement by failing to pay employees correctly when they cashed-out personal/carer's leave.
The CPSU and Department of Border Protection return to the FWC next week for conciliation of their draft workplace determination, while employees of three APS agencies have again rejected offers.
The AWU suspects that iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals Group is set to move its production workforce onto a newly-approved non-union agreement for a related entity.
Private sector enterprise agreements approved in the September quarter paid an average wage rise of 3.4% a year, after construction deals providing substantial annual increases helped to lifted bargained wage deals out of the doldrums, new Department of Employment data reveals.
WA's Murdoch University has applied to terminate its enterprise agreement, which the NTEU claims could cut academics' pay by 25% to 40% once they fall back onto underlying awards.
The CFMEU says it will push for members to reject Rio Tinto's latest offer for 700 workers at its Hail Creek coking coal mine, as it accuses the company of using a $10,000 sweetener to push through a proposal not materially different to an offer the workforce rejected in 2014.
