Unions are calling on Chevron's Gorgon and Wheatstone workers to again reject a unilateral agreement offer and instead "lock in behind a 100% 'yes' vote" for industrial action, as offshore workers join their onshore colleagues in considering strikes at key LNG facilities.
Workers employed by major hydrocarbons producer Woodside have overwhelmingly endorsed protected action at three key gas platforms off WA's north-west coast.
The FWC is not acting beyond its powers when it allows extra time for compulsory conciliation meetings when setting protection action ballot deadlines, a full bench has concluded.
The FWC has panned rail operator Qube for "reneging" on an in-principle enterprise deal with the RTBU, after rejecting the union's bid to terminate industrial action that allegedly presented a threat to community safety and welfare.
In the latest of a rash of significant rulings on protected action ballots, the FWC's national practice leader for bargaining has insisted a bus company provide employee details despite its "uncommon concession" to rely on a union's database alone to develop a roll of voters.
The FWC decided this week to terminate rather than suspend industrial action at the Australian Rail Track Authority, because the parties' "entrenched" positions made it "unlikely any significant progress would be made" if it ordered a pause, according to newly-released reasons.
The FWC has found no justification for interfering with a union's "statutory right" to three working days notice of industrial action against an "essential service" energy provider, after taking into account a five-point "safety commitment" the ETU put forward in response to the employer's concerns about supply continuity.
BHP has played down the impact of industrial action at its Queensland coal mines, highlighting that the protected action won support from only about 15% of Operations Services production employees in Queensland.
CFMMEU mining and energy division members have this week kicked off protected action in BHP's Queensland coal mines, sparking early sparring over the company's proposed ban on allowing workers back into their accommodation camp while on strike.
The FWC has refused to suspend engineers' industrial action at a Virgin Australia subsidiary while their employer pursues an intractable bargaining declaration, in an early test of the new Secure Jobs provision.
