Grave diggers and funeral workers are set to vote on strikes and cremation bans after the FWC rejected claims that no amount of notice will avert "significant consequences", while also backing the AWU's objection to the employer's proposed survey of its workforce to gauge its views.
The FWC has refused a bid for a three-month suspension of industrial action at a major aluminium smelter, finding that it would hinder bargaining, and that the AWU had already made significant concessions to ensure that the plant would remain operational.
The FWC has ordered lift manufacturer Schindler to end an unlawful lockout of more than 200 workers, holding that alerting union delegates to impending "employer response action" did not satisfy a requirement to notify bargaining representatives.
The Federal Court has today ordered Qantas to pay a $90 million fine - including $50 million to the TWU - for the Flying Kangaroo's unlawful outsourcing of the jobs of about 1800 ground handling employees, while it has criticised chief executive Vanessa Hudson for failing to appear to explain the airline's contrition.
The FWC has more than halved the proportion a private operator of Newcastle's public bus network can dock from the pay of drivers who allow passengers to travel fare free during partial work bans.
The ACTU has renewed its call to remove or curb employers' ability to lock out their workforces, after a multinational mining company extended to almost three weeks its freeze on mineworkers returning to the job at an Illawarra coal pit.
The MEU says its members at a Peabody underground coal mine near Wollongong have been "blindsided" by the company's week-long lockout of 160 mineworkers, saying it is a disproportionate response to limited protected action.
The FWC has ordered a health and safety representative to stop organising unprotected strikes for workers maintaining Sydney's trains, after finding no evidence that they faced immediate dangers from an increase in night shifts.
A 48-hour midwives strike would have endangered the lives of mothers and babies, the FWC has ruled, in newly-published reasons explaining why it suspended the stoppage.
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.
