Victoria Police and the Police Association have until close of business today to accept a peace deal brokered by the FWC that boosts wages by 5% a year for general duties officers and 4.5% for others.
A full Federal Court has quashed a first-of-its-kind FWC full bench majority finding that the tribunal has the power to make a workplace determination on contested bargaining matters after an agreement has already won approval.
In a significant judgment on the statutory nature of a "proposed enterprise agreement", a Federal Court has rejected arguments that rail unions lost protection of their industrial action once the bargaining focus changed from a single to a multi-employer deal.
Ahead of a full bench hearing next month, the ACTU says the FWC should grant the SDA's landmark supported bargaining application because it meets the key "common interests" prerequisite, while McDonald's argues that its franchisees don't meet the criteria.
The FWC's edginess over small-cohort deals has come to the fore again after a member exercised his discretion to allow unions to insert themselves in the approval process for an agreement voted up by three workers, despite having no standing as bargaining representatives.
Professionals Australia has found the inclusion of a disconnect clause in an agreement or award doesn't go far enough and has drafted a model policy to drive the cultural change necessary to enable workers to exercise the right, which took effect in August for most workers.
The FWO has published a guide to the newly-declared voluntary code for small businesses - said to be a blueprint for employers of all sizes - to protect themselves from criminal liability under Closing Loopholes wage theft provisions from January 1.
Unprotected industrial action undermines collective negotiations because it is "directly contrary" to the Fair Work Act's bargaining regime, Deputy President Gerard Boyce has held in his reasons for finding the UWU's "unlawful" picketing of Woolworths distribution centres breached its good faith bargaining obligations.
In a decision tackling an overlooked need to issue protected action ballot orders reflecting a shift to multi-employer bargaining at Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, the FWC has chastised the employers for seeking an additional technical step serving "no purpose" other than to bring about a delay.
The NTEU is calling for the FWO's "anti-wage theft model" to be rolled out nationally, after Sydney University entered an enforceable undertaking to make up more than $23 million in underpayments to more than 14,000 workers and Melbourne University did the same, for denying more than 25,000 workers a total of $72 million.
