In a decision signalling potential judicial pushback against so-called "sham" agreements, a Federal Court has quashed a two-year-old deal approved by three employees that now covers more than 1000 mining services workers, ruling that the employer made inadequate efforts to explain a document benchmarked against 11 different awards.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered Glencore subsididary Oaky Creek Coal to stop conducting surveillance of locked-out employees of its Oaky North underground coal mine in Queensland.
In a landmark judgment upholding a casual employee's right to convert to permanency on a "like for like" basis, the Federal Court has concluded it should fine Toll more than $40,000 and order it to compensate a freight handler for refusing to grant his request for full-time employment from May last year.
The FWC has found it has no basis to suspend industrial action by CEPU members at the Australian Submarine Corporation, because a campaign of 162 half-hour stopworks is yet to begin, but has warned it would be likely to issue orders to provide for an agreement ballot in a strike-free environment if circumstances change.
An FWC full bench has upheld a decision that found workers should be paid for unworked overtime hours under an inclement weather provision that applies to enterprise agreements across the Icthys LNG project near Darwin.
In an unusual case in which a coffee chain franchisee has convinced an FWC full bench to quash its agreement after claiming it and an IR consultant provided false evidence to win its approval, the tribunal will refer their statutory declarations to the Federal Police to investigate whether they have committed any crimes.
The FWC has revoked three decisions issued last week that terminated Pizza Hut's national and Queensland agreements, saying they were issued "due to administrative error".
The FWC has granted the CFMEU standing as an intervener to scrutinise whether an agreement passes the better off overall test, despite an employer's objections that it has no members affected, has a commercial interest in opposing deals and is a generally disreputable organisation.
