A Fair Work Australia full bench yesterday reserved its decision on a bid by offshore oil and gas logistics company Total Marine Services to have the tribunal impose a higher threshold for granting protected action ballots.
The model transitional provisions in many modern awards could pose a major administrative challenge for some employers, according to Adelaide University Professor of Law, Andrew Stewart.
A Queensland refinery will be able to "in-source" its maintenance workforce free from their existing enterprise agreement, after Fair Work Australia for the first time approved an employer bid for an exemption from the Fair Work Act's new transfer of business provisions.
Complex transitional arrangements for redundancy and modern award pay rates will create difficulties for some employers in moving to the Fair Work safety net next year, according to University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart.
Annual wage rises in private sector enterprise agreements eased to a still-strong 4% in the June quarter, as employers rushed to lodge a record number of non-union deals before the Fair Work Act took effect, new DEEWR data reveals.
The AMWU has failed in its bid for bargaining orders against Coates Hire, after Fair Work Australia rejected its argument that the employer breached good faith bargaining obligations by "surface bargaining" and unilaterally conducting an agreement ballot that coincided with the union's secret ballot to authorise industrial action.
The AIRC has granted the AMWU's application for a protected ballot of employees at a Heinz factory in Victoria, where, like at Campbell's last week, the individual flexibility clause to be included in the agreement for the site is one of the issues in dispute.
CFMEU (construction and general division) officials in Victoria and other States are already asserting that they're back and the ABCC is going, while some major contractors appear to be "wavering in their resolve to reject unlawful conduct", ABC Commissioner John Lloyd said today.
Fair Work Australia has rejected a LHMU bid for a scope order to cover Coca-Cola Amatil's operations in South Australia, ruling that such applications can only be approved if they strictly comply with statutory prerequisites.
The Federal Magistrates Court has today reserved its decision on the first interlocutory bid for a remedy under the Fair Work Act's "adverse action" provisions.
