Long haul Qantas pilots are about to vote on whether to back protected action for the first time since the airline grounded its fleet and locked out workers in 2011, as they seek improvements to a rejected offer and the Flying Kangaroo prepares to roll out its crucial Project Sunrise non-stop flights.
A senior FWC member has affirmed that the statutory focus when considering whether "exceptional" circumstances exist to justify more notice for strikes is not on an employer's operations but on the proposed industrial action itself, rejecting Sydney's driverless train network's plea for extra warning.
Qantas breached the job security clause in its licensed engineers agreement when it unilaterally removed aircraft towing duties comprising at least 25% of their current workload, the FWC has found.
The FWC has confirmed an electrical contractor's pursuit of a multi-employer deal does not displace its obligation to negotiate a single enterprise agreement sought by the ETU, granting the union a PABO after finding the company breached good faith obligations.
The UWU has won a protected action ballot order despite an employer's intention to unilaterally put a proposed deal to a vote, and its insistence that the bargaining parties already agreed to it in-principle.
Industrial action has ceased at hydrocarbons producer Inpex after it reached an in-principle agreement with the Offshore Alliance containing what the unions claim are "great" pay rises they claim will set the standard for negotiations underway for a new Shell Prelude agreement, while they have credited the FWC's interest-based bargaining efforts with hastening a resolution.
The FWC has refused to halt Inpex employees' industrial action, finding that the $15 to $22 million daily cost of a shutdown would not significantly damage the economy, or risk the safety of the Northern Territory population.
NT Corrections has for the third time failed to halt prison officer strikes, with the FWC finding that the industrial action is protected and the UWU has complied with its assurances that it would protect the safety of prisoners.
Unions have today sought authorisation to strike at BHP's iron ore export operations at Port Hedland, after claiming to have been "stonewalled" during bargaining for new deals.
