The Offshore Alliance and the ETU say they will hit Woodside's North West Shelf gas platforms with industrial action as early as Saturday if a bargaining meeting this week disappoints workers, as the threat of broader strikes loom.
Unions are calling on Chevron's Gorgon and Wheatstone workers to again reject a unilateral agreement offer and instead "lock in behind a 100% 'yes' vote" for industrial action, as offshore workers join their onshore colleagues in considering strikes at key LNG facilities.
A cruise company has failed to convince the FWC to more than double the protected action ballot period sought for CFMMEU maritime division members to consider strikes and work bans on the basis it would better enable "meaningful" compulsory conciliation.
Workers employed by major hydrocarbons producer Woodside have overwhelmingly endorsed protected action at three key gas platforms off WA's north-west coast.
The FWC is not acting beyond its powers when it allows extra time for compulsory conciliation meetings when setting protection action ballot deadlines, a full bench has concluded.
The FWC has found no justification for interfering with a union's "statutory right" to three working days notice of industrial action against an "essential service" energy provider, after taking into account a five-point "safety commitment" the ETU put forward in response to the employer's concerns about supply continuity.
BHP has played down the impact of industrial action at its Queensland coal mines, highlighting that the protected action won support from only about 15% of Operations Services production employees in Queensland.
As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.
A FWC bench will decide whether NSW rail employees receive an extra pay bump after long and fractious negotiations with the Perrottet Government ended with the approval of a new deal late on Friday.
ABC employees' almost three-quarters majority rejection of a deal unilaterally offered by the public broadcaster edges them closer to ending a "business model of overwork, underpay and inequality", according to the MEAA, which together with the CPSU is seeking almost twice the organisation's 9.5% proposal.
