FWC President Adam Hatcher has followed up his recent promise of "genuine engagement" with road transport employers sweating on the TWU's minimum-standards test cases for gig workers and "last-mile" deliveries by asking the Road Transport Advisory Group for more details on consultation timeframes, who it might include in subcommittees and how it "proposes to conduct itself more generally".
FWC President Adam Hatcher has moved to reassure transport industry employers that the TWU's minimum-standards test cases for gig workers and "last-mile" deliveries will not be hijacked by an advisory group set up by Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt, promising "genuine engagement" and emphasising that the Commission retains control of the "deliberative processes".
The FWC is set to convene an initial hearing next week into the CFMEU manufacturing division's application to demerge, using legislative provisions passed in July that gained new urgency after then construction division leader John Setka's threats to derail Australian Football League projects.
The WA IRC has made interim orders removing the recently reappointed leader of the ANMF's West Australian branch, Mark Olson, paving the way for the union council member who launched the challenge to take over his post.
A FWC full bench comprising the tribunal's three most senior members has issued a same-job, same-pay order sought by an individual on-hire mineworker placed at South32's Cannington silver, lead and zinc mine in Queensland who claimed it would lift his pay and that of hundreds of co-workers by 60%.
The FAAA says Qantas long haul cabin crew have overwhelmingly voted up a deal variation that will boost the pay of those employed by an in-house labour hire arm by up to 30%, and it is crediting the Albanese Government's same-job, same-pay reforms for a major breakthrough on their employment arrangements.
The Australian Industry Group is urging the FWC to take a "cautious approach" to the TWU's employee-like and road transport minimum standards test cases and meaningfully engage with industry to avoid the "mistakes" of past road transport regulatory regimes and seeks to limit the involvement of the Road Transport Advisory Group.
FWC general manager Murray Furlong has confirmed he can investigate whether the scheme for administering the CFMEU construction and general division is being effectively implemented and will continue to monitor its compliance.
Under-fire HSU branch leader Diana Asmar has been ordered not to use union funds to cover the costs of defending FWC allegations that she received "cashbacks" and unwarranted reimbursements, while also being directed to provide undertakings not to initiate any further reprisals against three officials who maintain that the branch no longer operates effectively.
Qantas has agreed to top-up the pay of freight workers at subsidiary Australian Air Express by almost $7000 a year to achieve parity with their directly-engaged colleagues after the ASU raised the prospect of lodging a same-job same-pay claim.
