A FWC full bench will tomorrow consider whether to terminate or suspend tugboat operator Svitzer's planned indefinite national lockout on Friday, after the company told Vice President Adam Hatcher it is not prepared to delay it and does not believe conciliation will help.
In a significant ruling on the wording of strike ballots, a FWC full bench has found that the Commission should not dictate which questions can be posed or how they are framed.
Towage company Svitzer is set to lock out its harbour tugboat workforce, claiming it has been forced into it by continuing disruptive protected action by three maritime unions.
A court has told the RTBU it will have to wait until next year to learn whether it might be exposed to damages after Sydney Trains workers bargaining for a new deal gave customers "free rides" as part of industrial action over a six-week period.
The FWC has rejected an employer's bid to stop planned strikes at a $1 billion lithium plant, after finding that its interpretation of notification requirements would effectively shave a day off the protected period.
The RTBU says an "unprecedented" NSW Government court case claiming that deactivating Opal card readers at Sydney train stations is not protected action and seeking to recoup lost revenue will force it to revert to disruptive strikes, as the union files its own court action in response.
The FWC has expanded on its reasons for rejecting an employer's request to terminate its own lock-out of workers so they could no longer take threatened industrial action, describing the "highly unusual" s424 application as inconsistent with the Fair Work Act's bargaining objectives.
The NSW Perrottet Coalition Government is blaming a union-negotiated staffing agreement for hampering its ability to offer permanency to temporary teachers, as both it and NSW Labor promise to convert 10,000 to permanent roles.
The NSW IRC is letting the IEU intervene in a State Government award application for public school teachers and make submissions alongside the NSW Teachers Federation, as the union pledges to leave "no doubt" it will reject locked-in low pay rises in Catholic schools.