Agreements and bargaining page 113 of 175

A majority of NSW Catholic diocese have decided to back pay to the start of this year a 2.5% increase contained in an agreement resoundingly rejected by teachers and support staff earlier this month.

The High Court has directed an FWC full bench to re-determine whether a controversial Aldi agreement for a new distribution centre passes the better off overall test, but it has agreed with the retailer that deals covering new enterprises can extend to employees yet to work there.

The High Court has today upheld an appeal by Esso Australia against a finding that industrial action taken by the AWU in 2015 was protected, in a decision that leaves the way open for a substantial damages claim against the union.

The High Court has today handed down judgments in the Aldi and Esso cases.

The AMWU has welcomed an FWC recommendation to end the long-running maintenance dispute at Griffin Coal and put a proposed agreement to the workforce, calling the package a "common sense middle ground" and a "sensible solution".

As teachers in about 350 NSW and ACT Catholic schools strike today over a proposed agreement's lack of guaranteed access to arbitration, employers claim the move is an attempt by the IEU to dissuade them from voting for the deal tomorrow.

Woolworths has committed to working with the NUW to ensure that it complies with minimum labour and human rights standards in its fresh food supply chain, while it has also struck a new enterprise agreement for its Victorian warehouses that increases pay by 4% a year.

The CFMEU says it is confident in its challenge to an agreement Thiess struck with three maintenance workers prior to securing a major mining contract, after a full Federal Court remitted the employer's appeal on the basis that an FWC full bench wrongly denied the union "the fruits of its victory".

A union delegate has been reinstated after the FWC determined that the absence of managerial opposition to a brief on-site "undies" protest meant it failed the legislative definition of unlawful industrial action.

In a decision signalling potential judicial pushback against so-called "sham" agreements, a Federal Court has quashed a two-year-old deal approved by three employees that now covers more than 1000 mining services workers, ruling that the employer made inadequate efforts to explain a document benchmarked against 11 different awards.