Coles, the SDA and the AWU have today asked an FWC full bench to refuse the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union permission to appear on behalf of two employees seeking to intervene in an application to terminate the supermarket giant's 2011 enterprise agreement.
The FWC has confirmed it has no authority to handle disputes about flexible workplace arrangements rejected by employers on "reasonable business grounds" unless specifically empowered to do so by an agreement.
A Senate inquiry has recommended passage of a bill that scraps mandatory four-yearly award review and has backed the FWC's proposal to backdate provisions allowing the tribunal to correct minor errors in bargaining notices.
An FWC full bench will next month deal with an attempt by the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union to intervene in a bid to terminate the 2011 Coles Supermarkets agreement, before a 10-day hearing of the substantive case in October.
The FWC has asked the Coalition to consider backdating its legislation to give the tribunal discretion to correct minor errors in bargaining notices, after a new regulation designed to reduce defects appears to have made things worse.
The bid to terminate the Coles Supermarkets enterprise agreement will be heard by an FWC full bench, after the Commission accepted that the 75,000-strong workforce it covered elevated the case to a "a matter of public significance because of its potentially broad economic and commercial effects."
An Emirates airlines group subsidiary has made a last-minute decision to withdraw a new enterprise agreement for ground-handling work that faced strong opposition from the ASU and TWU.
An FWC full bench has confirmed that many aged care and nursing employers are entitled to change employees' rosters without consent to meet business needs, as long as they don't breach their workplace agreements.
An accountancy firm that knowingly failed to maintain current award rates of pay in its MYOB payroll system has been found accessorially liable for an employer's underpayments.
