The FWC will set a week of hearings at the end of February to hear a RAFFWU bid to quash Woolworths' nominally-expired 2012 deal before a newly voted-up replacement is approved, with the retailer and the SDA saying they need time to consult the rest of the workforce.
A Federal Labor government will consider allowing multi-employer bargaining, but will focus on low-paid workers such as cleaners and early childhood educators, according to shadow IR minister Brendan O'Connor.
The FWC has further clarified the circumstances in which the signatures of a majority of workers can compel an employer to bargain with a union, finding that inviting employees to add their names to a petition occasionally left in an unlocked car did not reduce its force.
BP Australia is seeking to terminate the enterprise agreement for its oil refinery in Western Australia, in the latest case of a big employer using what the Federal Opposition has dubbed the "nuclear option" to break a bargaining deadlock.
The FWC says RAFFWU's objections to a Woolworths deal it expects to be voted up next week will delay its approval by "many months", as the tribunal orders the retailer to produce wage comparison documents to inform the union's bid to terminate the 2012 agreement.
The FWC has rejected arguments that the CFMEU engaged in pattern bargaining during negotiations over agreements with two crane operators, clearing the path for indefinite strikes to begin early this morning.
The 2016 ruling that a new enterprise agreement covering Coles failed the Better Off Overall Test helped trigger a dramatic fall in enterprise bargaining, according to new research
The AWU and other unions have failed in an attempt to delay the Fair Work Commission's hearing of Esso's application to terminate the enterprise agreement for Bass Strait offshore oil and gas workers.
The ACTU's national executive has been briefed today on a UK proposal to shift towards sectoral collective bargaining, which has already influenced Labour Party workplace policy under leader Jeremy Corbyn.
An FWC full bench has quashed a deal after accepting CFMMEU submissions that it would have allowed workers to be covered by future agreements ahead of its nominal expiry date, but has stopped short of finding that the tribunal should have heard from the union at first instance.
