An FWC presidential member has approved a bakery franchise agreement with undertakings, while emphasising that the BOOT involves a "balancing exercise" rather than a line-by-line comparison with underlying awards.
An FWC full bench has confirmed the Commission must consider the most current material available when determining whether a majority of employees want to bargain for an enterprise agreement.
The FWC is giving about 1300 employees at a Queensland residential aged care provider until Monday to let it know if they have a view on the QNU's bid to terminate their enterprise agreement, which is opposed by the AWU and United Voice.
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.
A full Federal Court majority has acceded to an SDA bid to overturn the approval of an ALDI deal, finding the FWC failed to establish that it was genuinely agreed and mistakenly held that a "make good" clause created an enforceable right to payments equal to or above those in the award.
The FWC has knocked out United Voice's bid to review copies of documents supporting an enterprise agreement application it suspected of "undercutting" employees' conditions and not being genuinely agreed, observing the union was trying to do the Commission's job.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash will intervene before the Fair Work Commission if any attempt is made to seek FWC approval of the new enterprise agreement for Victoria's Country Fire Authority.
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.
Victoria's volunteer firefighters have won further discovery of documents from the Country Fire Authority, in a case that considered whether dispute proceedings in the Fair Work Commission are covered by "without prejudice" privilege.
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection will put a new offer to its employees in the wake of the Fair Work Commission's decision to terminate industrial action at airports across the country and move towards arbitration of a new agreement.