A senior member of the Fair Work Commission has knocked back an enterprise agreement containing a voluntary additional hours provision lodged by a labour hire company with a workforce of casuals on working holiday visas.
The Federal Court has upheld the quashing of a controversial meat industry enterprise agreement, despite its view that a FWC full bench might have made mistakes in overturning a single member's decision to approve it.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a "start up" business making with a small group of workers an enterprise agreement that will later cover a much larger number and a wider range of jobs, but it will need to pass the "better off overall test" for those future employees as well as the existing ones, a FWC full bench has confirmed.
The Abbott Government will try its luck with a fourth major IR Bill before the end of the year, despite the first three having been blocked or held up in the Senate.
The September 1 deadline the Department of Human Services set for certification of its new enterprise agreement is set to pass without employees being asked to vote on its draft offer.
The Federal Court has set aside enterprise agreements for three private hospitals, finding the group's corporate manager had no authority to make them.
The Fair Work Commission has criticised an employer representative who filed a draft enterprise agreement for approval without sufficient evidence that it had been seen or approved by employees, saying her explanations about the deficiencies "could at best be described as prevarication".
A five-member full bench of the Fair Work Commission has ruled that employers can validly give extra information to employees at the same time as providing them with a bargaining representation notice, as long as it doesn't form part of the notice.
The Federal Court has held that the Fair Work Commission can't refuse to approve agreements because they would undermine collective bargaining, in the latest ruling on the John Holland deal covering just three workers.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled that only employees who will immediately be covered by an enterprise agreement are entitled to vote on its approval, not employees who are likely to be covered in the future.
