Agreements and bargaining page 109 of 174

The Fair Work Commission has blocked an attempt by 83 employees of an oil and gas refinery at Geelong from resigning en masse as members of an in-house Fire Auxiliary Team in a disagreement over safety and training.

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.

In a decision where the employer's case was embarrassingly "scuttled" by its own witness, a senior FWC member has found that Ausgrid failed to inform four safety specialists during job interviews that they wouldn't be receiving an allowance due to them under the relevant agreement.

In a significant decision on multi-hiring arrangements, a court has ruled that an Australia Post employee holding two "separate and distinct" part-time positions could not base overtime and other entitlements on combined hours.

In a novel decision on the need to consider alternative duties for incapacitated workers, the FWC has found an agreement clause requiring directions to be reasonable trumped BHP Coal's common law right to refuse to allow a mineworker to perform only part of his job.

The AMWU has agreed to end an eight-week strike at a Melbourne envelope plant after the employer, Australian Paper, gave ground on two of three demands.

The NTEU says it expects to reveal details next week of an in-principle agreement struck with Murdoch University after more than a year and a half of bitter negotiations.

Employers are not automatically entitled to reduce roster allowances when working hours fall below an agreement's "indicative" threshold, a court has found.

A Year 10 high school student has convinced the FWC to terminate a yoghurt chain's long-expired agreement, negotiated when she was still a toddler.

Some 90% of voting Coles workers have endorsed a new agreement that grandfathers over-award pay arrangements for current employees, improves penalty rates and provides a one-off $475 payment, but RAFFWU is expected to raise BOOT-related issues when it is submitted for approval.