A FWC full bench will next month hear a Virgin Australia subsidiary's bid for an intractable bargaining declaration, in the first test of the Secure Jobs legislation's deadlock-breaking provision, while the tribunal will consider in late August RAFFWU's bid to terminate the world's largest company's enterprise agreement.
The FWC has refused to suspend engineers' industrial action at a Virgin Australia subsidiary while their employer pursues an intractable bargaining declaration, in an early test of the new Secure Jobs provision.
Svitzer Australia workers have voted up a new national towage deal despite the MUA urging members to reject it in a late about-turn prompted by concerns that a union-proposed clause might let the company "outsource at any time" following consultation.
The FWC's national practice leader for bargaining has started the clock on compulsory conciliation while a strike vote is conducted, having also used one of the first applications under new workplace laws to suggest that while the "recency" of the provisions made a case for endorsing an unapproved ballot agent, the bar will be higher in future.
A leading labour law academic has told an IR conference that expanding the FWC's power to arbitrate agreement negotiations will be "the single biggest challenge" posed by the Secure Jobs changes, while the head of a peak state employer group's law firm says it is the "Damoclesean threat of the sword" that will bring people to the table.
As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.
The ALAEA says a one-minute strike by Qantas licensed engineers played a crucial role in securing a proposed deal boosting job security as the Flying Kangaroo introduces new aircraft and enables Sydney LAMEs to radically change their roster to achieve "lifestyle benefits", while the airline has today confirmed it cut labour costs by about $570 million under its COVID-19 "recovery plan".
The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act has received Royal Assent, stamping out pay secrecy clauses in new employment contracts, paring back MSD requirements and making it harder for employers to terminate agreements during bargaining, while the ABCC has entered a transition period ahead of its abolition.
ABC employees' almost three-quarters majority rejection of a deal unilaterally offered by the public broadcaster edges them closer to ending a "business model of overwork, underpay and inequality", according to the MEAA, which together with the CPSU is seeking almost twice the organisation's 9.5% proposal.