In a decision pointing to the circumstances under which zombie deals can survive beyond December's drop-dead date, a four-member FWC bench has extended a 2004 agreement by almost 18 months after accepting it provides "significantly" better pay than the award and that negotiations have already begun for a replacement deal.
The FWC has accepted a 48-seconds-late unfair dismissal claim from a worker convinced he filed it just before midnight on the last allowable day, after conceding that the tribunal's online processing quirks might have pushed it beyond the deadline.
BHP has played down the impact of industrial action at its Queensland coal mines, highlighting that the protected action won support from only about 15% of Operations Services production employees in Queensland.
CFMMEU mining and energy division members have this week kicked off protected action in BHP's Queensland coal mines, sparking early sparring over the company's proposed ban on allowing workers back into their accommodation camp while on strike.
A UK tribunal has found that a job interviewer asked seven questions that could be "reasonable and entirely innocuous" individually, but cumulatively could constitute racial discrimination.
The FWC has affirmed that blaming late applications on "technical difficulties" without hard evidence is not enough to extend time, even when the margin is just 60 seconds.
New DEWR data shows that bargained private sector wages grew at 3.9% a year in the March quarter - the fastest rate of increase in more than a decade, but still a long way behind inflation.
In the first test of Secure Jobs zombie-slayer provisions, a FWC full bench has refused to delay the automatic axing of a scaffolding company's 14-year-old deal after establishing that, contrary to the employer's claims, many of its workers will be better off under the award.
