In its first decision since pay secrecy penalties took effect this month, the FWC has rejected an employer's bid to redact a "commercially sensitive" list of clients included in a proposed agreement.
Many employers are still scrambling to work out what the next raft of Secure Jobs changes will mean for them when they take effect next Tuesday and fear being "caught by surprise", according to the Ai Group, while the FWC has added a series of videos to its information packages on the amendments.
A senior FWC member has continued to resist CFMMEU intercession in the approval of non-union deals, condemning it for straying beyond his direction that it confine its submissions on a demolition company's rollover agreement to a BOOT assessment.
A Federal Court judge has speculated that he might have been "overly pessimistic" when he rejected suggestions that a FWC full bench displayed bias when sharing with parties its concerns about an already-approved agreement.
As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.
A distinctly elementary counting error has led to a FWC full bench quashing the rejection of a non-union university deal and returning it to the member for reconsideration.
As the FWC seeks feedback on draft principles it will have to factor in when deciding whether deals are genuinely agreed, an early ACTU submission lists multiple ways employers should facilitate union involvement, along with a "rebuttable presumption" it is authentic where registered unions support approval.
The Australian Higher Education Industrial Association says it is doing its job by developing a roadmap for securing fast rollover agreements to avoid universities being "roped in" to multi-employer deals.
A new discussion paper to encourage debate and inform the FWC's drafting of a statement of principles on genuine agreement in bargaining asks for feedback on whether the Commission should take a prescriptive approach in response to the removal of detailed pre-approval obligations.
The FWC has confirmed that unions applying for a MSD can demonstrate support for bargaining by subsequently providing individual declarations from workers who did not initially cast a vote.