US presidential labour advisor Tom Kochan - who will be opening an international IR conference in Sydney next week - has thrown his weight behind landmark American legislation that will introduce a form of "first contract arbitration" - similar to that under Australia's low paid bargaining stream - and boost the ability of unions to organise workers and make agreements.
Bargaining representatives cannot seek bargaining orders once workers have voted on a proposed agreement, even if there is evidence that good faith requirements were not complied with, Fair Work Australia has ruled.
Fair Work Ombudsman Nick Wilson says he is confident his agency's intelligence-gathering and auditing activities will uncover any widespread unlawful use of individual flexibility agreements, despite the absence of any statutory obligations for employers to report they have used them.
The CPSU has won a commitment from the Federal Government for federal public service agreements to expire on a common date, according to the union's national secretary, Stephen Jones.
The AMWU looks set to succeed in its bid for a majority support determination at Cochlear after a majority of production employees voted "yes" to collective bargaining in yesterday's ballot, the first of its kind under the Fair Work Act.
In the wake of Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard's directions to the AIRC to amend the restaurant & catering and seagoing industry awards, the tribunal has announced it will publish drafts of the two instruments by September 25.
Fair Work Australia has refused an LHMU application for a majority support determination covering Coca-Cola Amatil's employees in South Australia – its first such rejection – after finding the employer had already initiated bargaining for new agreements.
Aircraft engineers employed by Virgin Tech will be balloted to determine whether there is majority support for bargaining, after Fair Work Australia today heard an ALAEA application that followed hard on the heels of Qantas blaming the union's industrial action last year for $130m in lost revenue.
Changes to the definition of pattern bargaining introduced by the Fair Work Act have not significantly altered its meaning, Fair Work Australia has ruled, in a decision that also considers the place of industrial action in good faith bargaining.
