Onshore workers for Esso's Bass Strait oil and gas operations have voted up a second replacement enterprise agreement, leaving only the terms of the third deal, for offshore, to be arbitrated by the FWC.
Rio Tinto has agreed to sell its NSW coal interests – including the Coal & Allied operations that were at the centre of the late 1990s battle of the IR "titans" – to Chinese interests for $3.2 billion ($US2.45 billion).
The tone around deadlocked negotiations over a new agreement at Parmalat's Echuca processing plant has shifted dramatically over the past 24 hours, both sides believing a resolution is near after agreeing to divide up and rework contentious clauses before reconvening early next week.
The CFMEU expects to lodge an appeal early next week against yesterday's FWC decision to terminate the agreement for AGL Loy Yang's power station and coal mine because of the "intractable" bargaining dispute between the parties.
The CPSU and Department of Border Protection return to the FWC next week for conciliation of their draft workplace determination, while employees of three APS agencies have again rejected offers.
The CFMEU says it will push for members to reject Rio Tinto's latest offer for 700 workers at its Hail Creek coking coal mine, as it accuses the company of using a $10,000 sweetener to push through a proposal not materially different to an offer the workforce rejected in 2014.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
NSW Government electricity distributor Essential Energy will be able to proceed with up to 600 forced redundancies over the next 18 months, under a workplace determination made by an FWC full bench today.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection is to put forward a draft workplace determination to the FWC by this Friday and the CPSU will then have a fortnight to respond.
Former Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger has told a Senate inquiry that getting rid of bargaining altogether in the federal public sector would improve productivity.
