An FWC full bench has emphasised that the tribunal should take a "global" rather than "line by line" approach when applying the better off overall test to agreements, while in another ruling the Commission has approved a deal with employer undertakings, despite union misgivings that it was originally voted up by only three employees who have since left the company.
BHP Billiton has nominated the Coalition's right of entry and greenfields amendments, stalled in the Senate, as its first priorities for IR change, telling the Productivity Commission it also wants restrictions on agreement content, faster relief from industrial action and a wound-back adverse action regime.
The FWC has refused to issue a new entry permit to an AMWU organiser who engaged in "egregious" conduct during the notorious Westgate Bridge dispute in 2009, and has described as "baffling" a 2011 decision to grant him a permit.
In a case set aside until the High Court ruled on the Mammoet accommodation dispute, the Fair Work Commission has found that coal mining workers should have been paid their safety and production allowance while they were taking protected action during a bargaining battle.
The NSW Public Service Association says its axing of an assistant secretary position has boosted its war chest to fight the state government's electricity privatisation plans.
The Fair Work Commission has dismissed the unfair dismissal claims of two highly-paid managers because their allowances elevated their remuneration beyond the high income threshold.
The Senate committee inquiring into the federal government's bargaining bill has handed down a report free of any recommendations to improve it, with Coalition senators wanting it passed without amendment and Labor and the Greens calling for its rejection.
A dismissed software engineer must pay IBM Australia $150,000 in costs after failing to convince the Federal Circuit Court that she was discriminated against because she was a young single mother.
The FWC has issued a new, unconditional entry permit to the CFMEU construction and general division's Queensland leader, rejecting the building watchdog's argument that it should be withheld because of union conduct that has attracted more than $900,000 in fines during his eight years as "ringmaster".
The Federal Court has fined the CFMEU's mining and energy division $45,000 for taking adverse action against a former Pilbara organiser after the AWU complained that he was a "Trot" who was "bagging" the union.
