Employees in Employment Minister Michaelia Cash's department have narrowly voted-up a new enterprise deal that provides a 6% pay increase over three years.
Tug operator Svitzer has moved to a single national agreement, after the FWC rejected objections from one of three unions that the company had unfairly selected the employees to be covered.
FWC accepts PC report as submission rather than evidence; Heerey report due at end of month; Patrick talks continuing; Productivity portfolio dropped in Turnbull's reshuffle; and MUA tells members not to respond to FWO overtures.
Some 35,000 Department of Human Services employees began voting on Friday on a proposed deal delivering a 2% annual pay rise, while the FWC has recently approved agreements for three mid-sized APS agencies providing the same quantum to about 8,500 employees.
The Fair Work Commission, in a decision published today, says it suspended the MUA's protected industrial action at Patrick container terminals to allow further private negotiations to be assisted by presidential member Anna Booth.
The FWC has ruled that a company's enterprise agreement obliges it provide "meaningful work" to redeployees and operates as an exception to the general rule that there is no common law right to be provided with work.
The AWU and Cleanevent are awaiting a Federal Court ruling on their legal tussle over the modern award to cover cleaners at the Spotless group subsidiary.
Stevedore DP World has acknowledged its "clerical error" is to blame for the FWC's rejection of proposed enterprise agreements for its Melbourne and Brisbane container terminals, after its ballot declarations wrongly stated that fewer than 10% and 2% of workers respectively supported the deals.
The new enterprise agreement between Hutchison Ports and the MUA provides for greater use of casual labour and for negotiations on longer working hours as shipping container volumes rise.
MUA members at Hutchison Ports Australia have endorsed a new enterprise agreement that will end long-running protests at its Sydney and Brisbane container terminals as it ensures that stevedoring employees won’t be forced into redundancies.
