Patrick and the MUA have today begun four days of assisted negotiations, despite an FWC full bench yesterday clearing the way for the union to resume industrial action.
Some 35,000 Department of Human Services employees began voting on Friday on a proposed deal delivering a 2% annual pay rise, while the FWC has recently approved agreements for three mid-sized APS agencies providing the same quantum to about 8,500 employees.
In a important decision on right of entry, an FWC full bench has permitted the CFMEU to hold discussions in a BHP Coal mine's dragline crib rooms, overruling a previous finding that that the areas were not fit for that purpose.
An employee who suffered a venomous spider bite that required her to be hospitalised has failed to secure extended sick leave after the FWC ruled her medical condition wasn't "prolonged" or "serious" enough.
An FWC full bench has overturned a "counter-intuitive" decision to compensate a worker dismissed for his blatant disregard of his employer's drug and alcohol and OHS policies.
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver says unions need to adopt "radical thinking" when it comes to union mergers and alternative membership models, citing his AFL club's "seven different types of membership" as one potential template.
Key crossbench senators have sided with Labor and the Greens to delay a vote on legislation to re-establish the ABCC until at least the middle of March.
The NSW IRC has found that even if it had found an employee was unfairly dismissed, his Facebook posts calling his employer a "bastard" and "criminal", after the dismissal, would have ruled out reinstatement.
