The licenced aircraft engineers' union is urging the "liberalisation" of union coverage rules, saying that if they didn't exist at all, the industrial unrest that fuelled the bargaining battle between the union and Qantas might have been diminished before the airline dramatically shut down its operations and locked out its workforce in 2011.
Alcoa Australia has been ordered to bargain with the CFMEU for an enterprise agreement to cover 15 power supply operators at its regional Victorian plant after the Fair Work Commission granted the union a majority support determination.
Despite acknowledging the convention that it is a "brave or foolish" FWC member who refuses to follow a full bench ruling, a commissioner has done just that on the way to granting a union's application for a scope order for an agreement to cover workers at one of a building company's four sites.
In a dispute that could extend to the eastern seaboard, major stevedore DP World says it will lock out its Fremantle workforce tomorrow and subcontract its work to competitor, Patrick.
Employees of national retailer Spotlight will return to award conditions today, after enterprise bargaining negotiations with the SDA failed and the union convinced the Fair Work Commission to terminate the company's first-ever collective agreement.
The Fair Work Commission has knocked back a major electricity distributor's application to exclude middle managers and senior technical employees from its new enterprise agreement, finding "no persuasive evidence" it would improve productivity and efficiency.
Oil and gas companies are pushing the federal government to introduce special greenfields agreements lasting more than five years for "major" projects involving at least $50m in capital spending and to boost certainty by giving employers an automatic right to an arbitrated extension of the deals.
A company granted a broad Victorian Supreme Court order to curb a picket line at its warehouse remains at loggerheads with the NUW over its push for a new enterprise agreement.
The FWC has ordered the United Firefighters' Union to comply with good faith bargaining obligations in its negotiations with Victoria's Country Fire Authority, while the union has lodged an appeal against the Federal Court's ruling that clauses requiring the CFA to employ additional firefighters and conduct recruitment are unconstitutional.
