The head of Networks NSW, which owns the power "poles and wires" entities that are to be privatised if the Coalition wins Saturday's NSW election, is pushing for FWC approval of agreements to be conditional on them undergoing an objective "productivity test" and is backing calls for the creation of a separate FWC appeals jurisdiction.
The Fair Work Act's provisions for ending safety-threatening industrial action are broader than those of its predecessor, a senior FWC member has ruled in her reasons for suspending planned NSW power industry stoppages earlier this month.
A group of leading IR academics has made a preemptive strike against any attempt to use the Coalition's "freedoms" inquiry to diminish the immunity from common law liability conferred by the Fair Work Act's protected industrial action provisions.
A senior FWC full bench has moved to clarify the confusion caused by conflicting decisions on whether unions that bargain for non-permitted matters are "genuinely trying to reach an agreement" under the Fair Work Act.
The Fair Work Commission has ruled that it has no jurisdiction to impose conditions on industrial action when it orders a protected action ballot, rejecting Aurizon's bid for it to require the rail union to guarantee it won't interfere with the transport of perishable or hazardous goods.
Coles meatworkers in Victoria and Tasmania were entitled to vote to take protected industrial action because they had been genuinely seeking separate enterprise agreements late last year, a FWC full bench has ruled.
The MUA has given notice of four consecutive 24-hour stoppages at the marine contractor Farstad from November 15, in the latest development in enterprise bargaining involving vessel operators servicing the offshore oil and gas sector.
