A group of Senate crossbenchers is set to agree on limited changes to the Fair Work Act, including providing a mechanism for breaking bargaining deadlocks on greenfields agreements.
A full Federal Court has today dismissed a union appeal against an FWC decision that allows for agreements beyond their nominal expiry date to be terminated during the bargaining process.
The FWC has declined to issue bargaining orders against the MUA for its conduct in negotiations with offshore oil and gas vessel operators, despite finding it misrepresented the employers' position, played "fast and loose with the truth" and behaved in a manner that raised questions about whether it was genuinely trying to make replacement agreements.
The AWU faces a substantial damages bill after the Federal Court ruled today that the union took adverse action against Esso Australia when its members undertook unprotected industrial action in March, including using the action to coerce Esso into changing its bargaining position.
In an important ruling, the Federal Court has found that an interim bargaining order that the MUA didn’t comply with was “spent” and didn’t stop it proceeding with protected industrial action.
A revised enterprise deal with an extra day off in each roster cycle for the Gorgon LNG project’s largest contractor, CB&I, has been voted down, after a ballot closed on Friday evening.
The AWU has called for Esso Australian to return to negotiations after workers at its Bass Strait oil and gas operations overwhelmingly rejected proposed new enterprise agreements.
A proposed agreement that sought to reduce working days each roster period from 26 to 23 days for the Gorgon LNG project's largest contractor has been voted down.
The AWU expects employees at Esso Australia's Bass Strait oil operations to reject the company's proposed new enterprise agreements, which include shifting from seven-day to 14-day roster cycles for offshore workers.
The major rail freight operator Aurizon has broken a bargaining deadlock with rail unions at its Queensland coal-hauling operations, where negotiations started more than two years ago.
