In a decision pointing to the circumstances under which zombie deals can survive beyond December's drop-dead date, a four-member FWC bench has extended a 2004 agreement by almost 18 months after accepting it provides "significantly" better pay than the award and that negotiations have already begun for a replacement deal.
The FWC decided this week to terminate rather than suspend industrial action at the Australian Rail Track Authority, because the parties' "entrenched" positions made it "unlikely any significant progress would be made" if it ordered a pause, according to newly-released reasons.
BHP has played down the impact of industrial action at its Queensland coal mines, highlighting that the protected action won support from only about 15% of Operations Services production employees in Queensland.
CFMMEU mining and energy division members have this week kicked off protected action in BHP's Queensland coal mines, sparking early sparring over the company's proposed ban on allowing workers back into their accommodation camp while on strike.
New DEWR data shows that bargained private sector wages grew at 3.9% a year in the March quarter - the fastest rate of increase in more than a decade, but still a long way behind inflation.
In the first test of Secure Jobs zombie-slayer provisions, a FWC full bench has refused to delay the automatic axing of a scaffolding company's 14-year-old deal after establishing that, contrary to the employer's claims, many of its workers will be better off under the award.
A FWC full bench will next month hear a Virgin Australia subsidiary's bid for an intractable bargaining declaration, in the first test of the Secure Jobs legislation's deadlock-breaking provision, while the tribunal will consider in late August RAFFWU's bid to terminate the world's largest company's enterprise agreement.
The FWC has refused to suspend engineers' industrial action at a Virgin Australia subsidiary while their employer pursues an intractable bargaining declaration, in an early test of the new Secure Jobs provision.
The MUA says crew working on ships servicing key offshore gas operations have stopped protected action over their workplace compensation arrangements, but maritime employers have warned the struggle to find insurers is an industry-wide problem.