In a significant, if split, decision on the FWC's jurisdictional ambit, a majority full Federal Court has ruled that the tribunal would not be invalidly exercising judicial power if it arbitrated a dispute under an agreement an employer inherited after winning a Defence Department tender.
In a decision highlighting the difference between "genuinely trying to reach agreement" and "good faith bargaining", the FWC has rejected an HSU application for a protected action ballot order and found its own conduct wanting.
The MUA has given notice of a four-hour protected stoppage next week at the Port of Melbourne's "robo-terminal", amid an escalating struggle over work arrangements.
MUA members have overwhelmingly endorsed protected industrial action at the Port of Melbourne's "robo-terminal", as the union seeks to drag the automated stevedore towards more traditional industry working arrangements.
An FWC full bench has, in dismissing a former Ausgrid worker's appeal, expressed surprise that a presidential member elected to hear the matter in the first place, noting that the employer knew nothing of any dispute before she made the application.
The FWC has ordered an aged care provider to restore leave days to employees it directed to stay away from work over COVID-19 transmission fears, observing "it's just the right thing to do".
The ASU is challenging the ATO's COVID-19 emergency work-from-home arrangements and its ability to quickly call employees back to the office, accusing it in a Federal Court adverse action case of breaching the terms of its agreement.
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers will today file a Federal Court test case for the TWU that alleges the Qantas decision to contract-out ground-handling duties performed by 2000 workers amounted to unlawful adverse action.
The Federal Court has held that a deal struck outside of an enterprise agreement cannot alter the FWC's jurisdiction to arbitrate, and nor do workers need to re-start dispute processes when a new agreement is approved.
The FWC has found the MUA should have followed the NSW chief medical officer's advice to return to the docks after OHS representatives issued a "cease work" order in response to wharfies contracting COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic.
