Two years after a forecasts of a membership wipeout fuelled soon-abandoned merger discussions with United Voice, the AMWU has approved a major overhaul of its structure and governance to take effect from July 1 next year.
A review of the 2015 amendments to the Fair Work Act's greenfields agreements provisions has rejected union pleas to axe "last offer" arbitration - despite a failure by employers to utilise it - and has recommended reducing from six months to three the "negotiating period" before the FWC can break deadlocks.
The FWC has found an HR advisor and a manager consciously and unreasonably decided against dealing with an employee's bullying complaints after imposing their own requirements on the information she had to provide before they would investigate.
ACTU leader Sally McManus has today called for IR reforms to enable industry and sectoral bargaining and restore the place of awards to reflect increasing reliance on them.
The AWMU is holding a three-day special national conference to consider a plan to overhaul its governance, structure and operations, as it seeks to revive a membership base that has dropped by more than half over the past 15 years.
The ACTU's policy pitch for the next election will include the right for casual workers to convert to permanent after six months, equal rights for workers in the gig economy and a overhaul of labour hire regulation.
Employers are pressing the Turnbull Government to urgently this week put to a Senate vote its legislation for a public interest test on union mergers, in a last-minute push to block the amalgamation of the CFMEU, MUA and TCFU.
In the wake of the public spotlight on the Qantas "inclusive language" guidelines, one of its baggage handlers has failed to convince the FWC that tearing a colleague's shirt, shoving him against a locker and telling him to f-ck off back to his country were not sackable offences but rather a bit of "argy bargy" between friends, consistent with the workplace culture.
The Federal Court has agreed to delay the trial of the AWU's bid to block the Registered Organisation Commission investigation that led to police raids on the union's offices last year.
The FWC has approved a rule change for a Virgin pilots union that will enable it to expand its associate membership category to encompass pilots from other airlines and grant them access to its insurance scheme for loss of their flying licence.
