Patrick stevedores' application to terminate its enterprise agreement is set to be heard by the FWC next week, in a case with far-reaching implications for work arrangements on the waterfront.
The FWC has rejected two unions' competing scope order applications for BHP Operations Services production and maintenance entities, finding that granting their bids would not resolve the key blockage - the company's determination to offer barebones safety net deals rather than comprehensive ones.
The FAAA says it will vigorously oppose an unprecedented Qantas bid to terminate its international cabin crew agreement, after a 97% majority rejected the Flying Kangaroo's unilateral "best offer" for a new deal.
The UWU says it has reached an in-principle deal with the Toll group on new three-year agreements for seven warehouses that provide 3% annual pay rises and a minimum starter rate of $25 an hour.
The MUA has accused Patrick of "bullying" after the stevedore yesterday applied to the FWC to terminate its nominally-expired union deal to break a 20-month bargaining deadlock amid a round of strikes at its container terminals in four states.
The FSU is planning to apply for good faith bargaining orders against Cbus, alleging the major industry super fund is engaging in capricious and unfair conduct that includes pushing individual contracts for some employees.
Major freight operator StarTrack has applied for the FWC to stop a protected 24-hour strike by TWU members on Thursday because it would hamper the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical supplies.
A FWC member has sailed past a union lawyer's caution not to interfere in the wording of a proposed strike ballot, finding that an "ambiguous" question should be deleted to avoid perplexing employees voting on it.
The CFMMEU has lost its bid for orders requiring Dulux to bargain with it on behalf of warehouse workers after the FWC found a delegate who spends all but a few hours of his working week operating forklifts is not a forklift driver for the purpose of its eligibility rules.
An IR consultant says a FWC decision ordering his client back to the bargaining table will have a chilling effect by confirming the "Hotel California" nature of a bargaining system in which once employers check in, "they can never leave".
