Peabody says it has called off a lockout of workers at the United Wambo Washery but the MEU claims it is effectively continuing as the company has told members it cannot accept their work if they continue to ban certain tasks.
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.
The Mining and Energy Union says a two-week lockout of Peabody workers at the United Wambo Washery is an "extraordinary response" given how close they are to reaching an agreement.
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.
Inpex is seeking FWC intervention to stop industrial action that it claims is threatening the national and NT economies, the LNG export industry and the health and safety of local gas customers.
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.
A labour law academic says a UN World Court finding that workers' right to strike is protected might revive ILO scrutiny of the extent to which the Fair Work Act "over-restricts" protected action, while a lawyer says it might "change the trajectory" of IR litigation and reform.
