In the latest FWC decision contemplating whether "minor" procedural or technical errors stand in the way of approving an agreement, a senior tribunal member has shot down a deal that delivered workers a 13% pay rise but relied on them accessing the underlying award via the internet.
RAFFWU will object to the FWC's approval of a new McDonald's deal voted up by an historically-low 59% majority, as it attempts to clear the way to terminate the burger giant's nominally expired 2013 agreement and claw back more than $250 million in alleged underpayments.
Newly-installed IR Minister Christian Porter has singled out the ailing enterprise bargaining system as one of his first priorities, highlighting the need to reduce "complexities" standing in the way of agreement-making.
A senior FWC member has told an IR conference that problems associated with a "radical disjunct" between the common law and award definitions of casuals will "snowball" if not resolved, while the cause of stunted wage growth in the face of strong labour market conditions lies beyond orthodox thinking.
A tribunal member has decided against involving the federal police in the case of a persistent applicant who accused him of corruption, further refusing to be "thrown off [his] game" by the man's "transphobic" references to him.
The FWC has held that an agreement negotiated with two train drivers but set to cover an entire transferred workforce on the Roy Hill Pilbara mine network was not genuinely agreed, but it is asking whether this is a minor error that can be dealt with via an undertaking, "odd as that may be".
The FWC has used new legislation permitting it to overlook minor technical or procedural errors in agreements to endorse an enterprise deal with a bargaining notice that failed to comply with the Act's pre-approval requirements.
Unregistered retail union RAFFWU has today questioned Woolworths' decision to display a bargaining notice on physical noticeboards rather than its electronic or "point of sale" systems, during an FWC hearing into its bid to quash the approval of a new deal and clear the way for a $1 billion backpay claim.
RAFFWU is challenging the approval of a Kmart deal that won overwhelming endorsement from workers, claiming a refusal to provide an opt-out of the retail industry superannuation fund and 1c above-award pay rates will mean it fails the better off overall test.
