A FWC full bench has approved a landmark multi-employer supported bargaining agreement covering more than 60 employers in the early childhood education and care sector, putting more than 12,000 employees in line for a 15% pay rise over two years.
Rail unions are urgently seeking renewed authorisation for festive season protected action at Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, after the Federal Court last night acceded to the employers' bid to temporarily declare unlawful bans to take effect this morning.
After a 17-day strike and continued picketing on Saturday despite FWC orders, workers at four Woolworths warehouses have voted up a revised offer, with pay rises of 10.5% to 12% over three years, and safeguards to ensure the company does not use a work-speed measurement tool to automatically discipline workers.
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.
Woolworths has today made an urgent application seeking that the FWC make orders to halt striking UWU members from "blocking access" to a Melbourne warehouse and three others in Victoria and NSW that has cost the business a claimed $50 million in sales.
A further same-job, same-pay test case is looming, after the nation's largest meat processor told the FWC that the AMIEU must make 10 separate applications for its 10 abattoirs across the country, rather than the single, omnibus bid it has submitted.
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 leading IR barrister says few employers are equipped to deal with the "huge sleeper issue" posed by the rise of working from home, as it becomes increasingly difficult to order employees to return, but he does not believe more legislation is the answer.
