In a significant ruling on what constitutes a "genuine" effort to reach agreement while bargaining, a FWC full bench has upheld a member's decision to grant a PABO to a union, despite it having met with the employer only once by the time its application came before the tribunal.
Wharfies at Qube's bulk and general ports plan to step up protected industrial action with bans and limitations this week in Melbourne, Port Kembla and Brisbane, while warning that strikes are imminent.
A FWC full bench led by president Adam Hatcher has overturned a two-month suspension of ETU strikes against Transgrid, taking the opportunity to lay out the correct approach to assessing safety commitments when considering whether protected industrial action should be stopped or suspended.
The AFP has failed to convince the FWC that the Australian Federal Police Association's "cursory" approach to providing a list of officers who wanted to continue wearing their "accoutrements and radios" while on strike at airports meant the industrial action was unprotected and should therefore be stopped.
The ETU's refusal to acknowledge that power network operator Transgrid alone dictates when emergency work is required provided the FWC sufficient reason to extend orders preventing certain protected industrial action for a further two months, according to a senior member.
The FWC has late today declined to expedite Transgrid's application for an intractable bargaining application against the ETU, after the power company last week won a two-month suspension of the union's protected action, but lost its bid to block an order for production of documents.
The CFMEU construction division's Queensland branch has suffered multiple setbacks in its bargaining stoush with the head contractor of the state's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, with workers voting up a new deal put directly by the company and the FWC separately issuing two orders stopping unprotected industrial action.
The FWC says it suspended certain ETU work bans on NSW's power transmission network because Transgrid "clearly established" the action threatened lives, safety, health or welfare, but the union is celebrating the rejection of the private operator's latest "substandard" offer.
A new protected ballot agent seed-funded by the ACTU has won FWC approval, after establishing that it has taken steps to separate itself from the union peak body, which is seeking to give unions a fair and low-cost alternative to existing providers.
A FWC full bench has clarified what constitutes "significant" damage to the national economy and when an employer can be considered an "important part" of it, in reasons for overturning the suspension of protected action by sugar industry workers.
