The UFU has been ordered to pay indemnity costs to Fire Rescue Victoria after a full Federal Court found that its challenge to FWC production orders was both "misconceived" and doomed in the face of binding authorities.
Air-conditioning industry employers have continued to queue to be included in a pioneering private sector single-interest agreement cast by the AMWU as a response to "dodgy", low-paid contract work.
Ahead of a 10-day full bench hearing of a bid to significantly shake-up the retail award, the ACTU has hit out at employers backing measures to "buy-out" core conditions for workers on as little as $53,680 a year, ditch "smokos" and introduce split shifts.
Industrial action is continuing at Maurice Blackburn after the ASU rejected the firm's latest "inadequate" pay offer, while the recently voted up agreement for rival plaintiff law firm Slater and Gordon lifts pay by 10.9% for workers, including early-career lawyers.
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.
