After chairing negotiations between resources giant Esso and the AWU, long-serving FWC member Bernie Riordan has today issued a recommendation that the company provide a 22% pay rise over almost four years to end a decade-long deadlock for its Bass Strait platform operators and that in return the workforce move to a new roster.
Employers are using the new intractable bargaining declaration provisions to undercut pay and conditions by trying to revisit agreed terms, which is inconsistent with the legislation's aim of breaking bargaining deadlocks, United Firefighters Union national secretary Peter Marshall told the Loopholes inquiry this morning.
Biotechnology giant CSL has made a rare application for bargaining orders against two maintenance unions, the ETU and AMWU, whose members voted up protected action ballots in September.
The FWC looks set to arbitrate the bargaining deadlock at Fire Rescue Victoria next year, after it scheduled a hearing date next month to hear threshold issues arising from its first intractable bargaining declaration.
FWC President Adam Hatcher says there are early indications the tribunal's new powers are starting to influence bargaining behaviour, while he is also urging legal and HR practitioners to look into a recent case that "signposts a way to remedy gender undervaluation at the granular workplace level".
The FWC will allow the Independent Education Union to start preparing evidence to support an intractable bargaining application for Catholic schools in Western Australia, ahead of teachers voting on the employer's third unilateral offer.
The union that won the first multi-employer bargaining authorisation under the Secure Jobs provisions is now seeking an intractable bargaining declaration as Catholic school teachers prepare to vote on a third unilateral offer after two years of fruitless single-interest bargaining.
The RTBU and ASU will today test whether employers can make deals directly with their employees after the termination of protected action to bypass the subsequent 21 days of negotiations and avoid the ensuing arbitration of an agreement.
The FWC's first intractable bargaining declaration looks set to referred tomorrow for arbitration following a fortnight of further negotiations between the UFU's Victorian branch and Fire Rescue Victoria.
Union members employed by Chevron have endorsed draft enterprise agreements covering three major gas projects and agreed to suspend planned industrial action due to resume tomorrow.
