It would be "very surprising" if NSW IR Minister Damien Tudehope received advice indicating that his federal counterpart might have sought to improperly influence the FWC when he wrote to it last week to alert it to agreement termination changes the Government decided at the jobs summit, according to Adelaide University Professor of Law, Andrew Stewart.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has today written to FWC President Iain Ross to advise of "impending" legislative changes that will prevent employers using terminations as a bargaining tactic.
The FWC has approved the termination of a small business's agreement after a tribunal member took the rare step of inviting workers to attend a teleconference where he spelled out the implications of reverting to the award.
Unions say an "eleventh hour" NSW Government ultimatum to seek to terminate deals covering train workers unless they call off all protected action by tomorrow afternoon is a clear example of the type of action that federal IR Minister Tony Burke will not support.
An employer has appealed to the Federal Court to quash FWC orders requiring five individuals to appear before a Commission full bench next week to address concerns over their role in the approval of its current agreement.
In a breakthrough for the ACTU ahead of this week's Jobs and Skills Summit, the Council of Small Business has agreed to support multi-employer agreements, while the two will also work together to achieve "new options" for workplace flexibility.
The AIPA says Qantas pilots have voted up, under threat of outsourcing, a newly-approved agreement variation that permits the flying kangaroo to apply existing fatigue rules for jets that fly six hours to its new generation Airbus A321XLRs that can be in the air for 11 hours.
The FWC has speculated that a government business enterprise reviewing a stood-down employee's performance deliberately dragged its feet in the hope he would resign.
Unions are accusing Apple of trying to ram through a deal that could have employees working up to 60 hours a week without overtime, with the ASU and the SDA calling for more time to consult and RAFFWU seeking 5% a year and to claw back alleged underpayments.
An employer has been given a final chance to respond without compulsion to concerns about a recently-approved deal, after a FWC bench dismissed an "unusual" application for it to recuse itself over perceived bias.
