The AWU suspects that iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals Group is set to move its production workforce onto a newly-approved non-union agreement for a related entity.
Private sector enterprise agreements approved in the September quarter paid an average wage rise of 3.4% a year, after construction deals providing substantial annual increases helped to lifted bargained wage deals out of the doldrums, new Department of Employment data reveals.
The CFMEU says it will push for members to reject Rio Tinto's latest offer for 700 workers at its Hail Creek coking coal mine, as it accuses the company of using a $10,000 sweetener to push through a proposal not materially different to an offer the workforce rejected in 2014.
The Federal Court has found that the CEPU breached a former organiser's employment contract but didn't take adverse action when it cut his pay after former southern states branch leader Kevin Harkins allegedly told him if he didn't like it he could "f-ck off and there's the door".
The Turnbull Government has been lambasted by the ACTU and state premiers after rejecting the push at today's COAG meeting for all modern awards to include paid domestic violence leave, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk decrying it as a "missed opportunity".
The MUA may be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation and penalties after the FWO commenced legal action against the union for allegedly organising unlawful, week-long industrial action at Sydney and Brisbane ports last year.
FWC President Iain Ross has today refused Employment Minister Michaelia Cash's request that he constitute a full bench to review Deputy President Jeff Lawrence's decision to grant CEPU NSW postal & telecommunications branch secretary Jim Metcher an entry permit.
Protracted negotiations over oil and gas agreements in the Bass Strait have moved a step closer to arbitration following the Victorian Government's application to terminate bargaining in the face of looming strike action.
