A FWC presidential member has lauded the Secure Jobs' compulsory post-PABO conferences that enable the Commission to "jumpstart" and accelerate bargaining, while at the same time reducing the incentive for unions to take industrial action.
The FWC has ruled that Coles unlawfully calculated long service leave payments based on a seven-day rather than five-day week, while acknowledging there is "room for debate" on the meaning of an "ordinary working day", particularly for workers with variable rosters.
In a shot in the arm for a paramedic transferred 350km away after an investigator found he bullied a female colleague, a full bench has ruled that bullying falls within a "spectrum of seriousness" and ordered the redetermination of whether he engaged in serious misconduct.
The FWC has found that an employer failed to implement recommendations from two bullying investigations conducted by the Ai Group and should now consider leadership training for the former manager of a worker who quit after the filing of the dispute case.
The UFU has failed to convince the FWC that Fire Rescue Victoria used a procedurally unfair process when it suspended two workers, after Victoria's anti-corruption body found they accessed private work emails at Victorian branch secretary Peter Marshall's request.
The FWC has thrown out a UFU bid for dispute orders forcing Fire Rescue Victoria to "take sides" and reveal its role in a report to Victoria's Parliament that criticises an agreement clause requiring union consultation and "consensus" before implementing change.
The FWC has refused to resolve a dispute about whether a remote locality allowance should be calculated on travel by road or "as the crow flies", but has determined, based on the parties' intentions, that a new Gladstone depot would not be covered by the allowance because it is "coastal" rather than remote.
The number of workers covered by agreements has risen by 36.5% over the past three years, according to the latest triennial FWC general manager's report, while applications to deal with bargaining disputes rose 73.5% over the same period.
In a novel move, unions are seeking to bring forward by 14 weeks the end of the strike-suspending s425 order won by NSW rail employers, arguing that it has failed to achieve its stated purpose of bridging the differences between parties, who they claim have moved further apart during FWC-supervised talks.
The UFU's Victorian branch is set to be referred to the AFP after a FWC full bench ran out of patience with the union over its refusal to explain how it came to charge a reputed members' income protection scheme $480,000 in "promotion/management costs".
