The bids by unions for protected action ballots for workers on the massive Gorgon LNG project are on hold for three weeks, after the FWC intervened to bring parties back to the negotiating table.
ASX top 100 company Asciano, which estimates that its subsidiary Patrick's last bruising bargaining round cost it $21 million, is calling for a greater role for the Fair Work Commission in "agreement facilitation".
The head of Networks NSW, which owns the power "poles and wires" entities that are to be privatised if the Coalition wins Saturday's NSW election, is pushing for FWC approval of agreements to be conditional on them undergoing an objective "productivity test" and is backing calls for the creation of a separate FWC appeals jurisdiction.
The AiG says that the Abbott Government should amend the Fair Work Act to prevent unions from taking industrial action when they are bargaining for "non-permitted" matters, in the wake of a FWC full bench decision on the issue this week.
A senior FWC full bench has moved to clarify the confusion caused by conflicting decisions on whether unions that bargain for non-permitted matters are "genuinely trying to reach an agreement" under the Fair Work Act.
The Fair Work Commission has ruled that it has no jurisdiction to impose conditions on industrial action when it orders a protected action ballot, rejecting Aurizon's bid for it to require the rail union to guarantee it won't interfere with the transport of perishable or hazardous goods.
Coles meatworkers in Victoria and Tasmania were entitled to vote to take protected industrial action because they had been genuinely seeking separate enterprise agreements late last year, a FWC full bench has ruled.
NSW power unions are pushing for a job security clause to cover thousands of workers at the state's two biggest "poles and wires" network businesses, which have been earmarked for privatisation if the Coalition is returned in March.
The ruling UK Conservative Party will lift the attendance threshold for strike ballots, impose a three month limit on industrial action and clamp down on picketing if it wins next year's election, while Britain's peak union body has called on the government to introduce online voting.
The Fair Work Commission's decision to temporarily halt a planned 48-hour strike at Tidewater Marine took into account that an MUA official was unavailable to give evidence in person to the tribunal.
