Education unions intend to hit the NSW Minns Government with "intense political action" after it proposed to pin three 2.5% annual pay rises on the back of a planned increase of up to 12%, while the author of a "blueprint" report is urging both parties to get "creative".
The FWC has cleared the way for RAFFWU to ballot its Woolworths members on whether to take multiple forms of industrial action and will require the supermarket giant to attend a conciliation conference next Wednesday in what the unregistered union says is a "historic" win.
NTEU members have resolved to hit seven Victorian universities with industrial action targeting their open days, including one institution that failed to convince the FWC not to grant the union a protected action ballot order.
The FWC's national practice leader for bargaining has started the clock on compulsory conciliation while a strike vote is conducted, having also used one of the first applications under new workplace laws to suggest that while the "recency" of the provisions made a case for endorsing an unapproved ballot agent, the bar will be higher in future.
As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.
Apple and the SDA have told the FWC a RAFFWU bid to axe the tech giant's retail deal is premature and a distraction from bargaining, while the unregistered union maintains it should be expedited as workers are on "inferior conditions".
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has told the High Court that upholding Qantas' challenge to a finding that it unlawfully outsourced ground-handling jobs would lead to a "chronic imbalance" in IR, while the airline argues that the Government should not be allowed to intervene in the case in the first place.
The Australian Higher Education Industrial Association says it is doing its job by developing a roadmap for securing fast rollover agreements to avoid universities being "roped in" to multi-employer deals.
The AWU has warned that Woodside's HR team faces a "learning curve" after the union yesterday won a hard-fought majority support determination forcing the energy giant to the negotiating table with its offshore platform employees for the first time in more than three decades.
