Early adopters Sydney Water and the ASU are again making use of the FWC's New Approaches program in negotiations for a new three-year agreement, providing workers with detailed proposals for conditions and pay rises after four days early this month of "interest-based" assisted talks.
The FWC has approved an agreement for 2,000 staffers for members of Federal Parliament, despite union claims it was not genuinely agreed because "voting irregularities" caused by the electronic voting system disenfranchised substantial numbers of workers.
The FWC has rejected a bid for bargaining orders to stop an agreement going to ballot, finding the employer was entitled to "draw a line in the sand" and refuse further negotiations.
The FWC has approved an agreement struck with three underground mineworkers that exposes them to fines for failing to comply with directions and safety procedures but provides hourly rates up to 35% higher than the award and up to $28,000 a year in bonus payments.
The FWC has confirmed it has the power to determine a dispute between labour supplier WorkPac and the CFMEU over pay cuts at a Rio Tinto coal mine, but its intervention is conditional on the union naming the employees involved.
The Federal Court has acknowledged in imposing more than $100,000 in fines on the AMWU, AWU and CFMEU and their organisers for taking unlawful industrial action and adverse action against Australian Paper that the unions only became involved when they "properly responded to the workers' needs".
An Emirates group subsidiary is planning to cut pay and conditions for its ground crew at Australian airports, the ASU has alleged in a submission to a Senate inquiry.
An undertaking that enabled employees who believed they had been underpaid to seek a reconciliation did not create "an enforceable right to any payment", an FWC full bench has ruled in overturning the approval of an enterprise agreement.
The CPSU is ramping-up its campaign to break a bargaining deadlock at the Department of Human Services, with rolling stoppages set to start next week, but the department anticipates the effect of the union's action will be "minimal".
Victoria's police federation has lost a battle to secure overtime for officers working at the 2014 G20 leaders' summit in Brisbane after the FWC concluded they were not working in the six hours between checking out of their hotel and a bus arriving to take them to their homebound flights.