The Federal Court has found that disputes about same-job, same-pay protected rates should come before the FWC in the first instance, while it has agreed to stay court proceedings until the Commission determines a SJSP dispute involving Workpac on-hire workers at a Queensland coal mine.
A FWC full bench majority has quashed a member's refusal to grant an intractable bargaining declaration for highly-paid deputies at a NSW coal mine, finding he wrongly considered that the tribunal's arbitration powers must not be "lightly engaged".
The FWC has ruled that Woodside's agreement does not prevent it sending offshore platform employees to work in Perth when a cyclone hits, but doubts remain about whether such a direction is lawful and reasonable.
On-hire workers at a Queensland coal mine who late last year won same-job, same-pay orders did not qualify for any portion of an annual bonus paid to the host's employees, the FWC has held, while separately finding the mine must pay the full incentive to its part-time direct employees, and those on unpaid leave or workers compensation.
The NSW Industrial Court has fined the state's nurses and midwives union $130,000 for its "flagrant and unapologetic" flouting of multiple anti-strike orders during pay negotiations with the Minns Government that have since morphed into a major gender undervaluation case.
Eighteen months after retail giant Aldi sought to insert a clause in a proposed agreement to render it immune to same-job, same-pay applications, it is facing a SJSP claim that the SDA says could lift on-hire warehouse workers' base pay by almost a third.
BHP's in-house labour hire company has been fined $15,000 and ordered to pay 85 production employees between $800 and $2400 each in compensation for unreasonably requiring them to work across Christmas holidays.
A FWC presidential member has recused himself from re-hearing an agreement variation case after observing that a bystander, "recognising human frailty", might appreciate his disinclination to reach different conclusions based on the same set of facts.
The FWC has rejected an AMWU bid to bargain for a standalone agreement for maintenance workers at BHP's WA iron ore operations, saying any negotiation difficulties are due to the "brevity" and "paucity" of meetings and not that BHP has focused too much on its larger production worker population.
The FWC has refused McDonald's' bid to put on hold the SDA's application for supported bargaining authorisations for more than 100,000 workers across five states and the NT until the Federal Court completes a review next year.
