The Fair Work Commission, in a decision published today, says it suspended the MUA's protected industrial action at Patrick container terminals to allow further private negotiations to be assisted by presidential member Anna Booth.
Senior FWC member Anna Booth is today chairing negotiations between Hutchison Ports Australia and the MUA on a framework for a voluntary redundancy program the company will offer to employees in an enterprise deal that the parties have agreed to finalise by November 16.
An employer has failed in a challenge to the validity of a protected action ballot that extended the voting period by 10 days, with the FWC finding the error was a "technical breach" that did not affect the result.
The FWC has refused a request by Boral CSR Bricks for an order to stop the CFMEU and AMWU taking industrial action over the company's plan to issue a disciplinary warning to a worker at its Victorian brickworks.
Unions have called off today's planned industrial action on Chevron's Gorgon LNG project after the CFMEU, AMWU and ETU reached an in-principle agreement with CB&I on a deal which they say will set a "new precedent" for FIFO rosters.
The FWC has declined to issue bargaining orders against the MUA for its conduct in negotiations with offshore oil and gas vessel operators, despite finding it misrepresented the employers' position, played "fast and loose with the truth" and behaved in a manner that raised questions about whether it was genuinely trying to make replacement agreements.
Hutchison and the MUA are today discussing a resolution of the ongoing dispute over the late night sacking of 97 Port Botany and Brisbane stevedoring workers via email and text message.
The Federal Court has this evening granted an interlocutory order sought by the MUA to stop stevedore Hutchison Ports from proceeding with plans to dismiss almost 100 employees at its Sydney and Brisbane container terminals.
The MUA has denied it is orchestrating picket lines outside Hutchinson's Port Botany and Brisbane container terminals after the FWC issued an updated anti-strike order prohibiting it from organising further protests.
The bids by unions for protected action ballots for workers on the massive Gorgon LNG project are on hold for three weeks, after the FWC intervened to bring parties back to the negotiating table.
