The Productivity Commission will begin consulting next month on its inquiry into the "long-term structural issues" affecting productivity on the waterfront, which requires it to consider "operational costs drivers, including industrial relations", according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
In a ruling giving close consideration to how compensation is assessed, the Federal Court has ordered the MUA to pay more than $2 million to Qube Logistics and Patrick stevedores over unlawful wharf stoppages in 2017.
The NSW Teachers Federation insists that problems within the profession are "too large" for it to comply with "unprecedented" orders to call off a planned one-day strike and refrain from any further action for six months.
In a significant ruling reinforcing the need for strict adherence to strike laws, the CFMMEU has failed to overturn a finding that an employer rightly deducted 12 hours' pay from mineworkers who took a total of about 30 minutes across three days to secure their machinery in preparation for protected action.
The UWU says it has reached an in-principle deal with the Toll group on new three-year agreements for seven warehouses that provide 3% annual pay rises and a minimum starter rate of $25 an hour.
The Toll Group has applied for the FWC to intervene in a bargaining dispute that has expanded to include indefinite strikes by UWU members at seven warehouses across three states.
A judge has cleared the way for a union to use "the last shot in [its] locker" in the form of protected industrial action after adjusting court-ordered deadlines to destroy results of a survey allegedly giving it a significant bargaining advantage.
Major stevedore Patrick has withdrawn its application to terminate industrial action at its container terminals after the MUA agreed that no further action would be notified before December 10.
Patrick Terminals has on the basis of a claimed threat to the national economy applied to terminate industrial action by MUA members at its four container terminals, increasing pressure on the union to reach a new enterprise agreement.
The MUA has begun legal action aimed at requiring the stevedore DP World to engage with 22 employees sacked for not acceding to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
