They reached their last bargaining deal only after a bloody industrial battle that culminated in a fleet grounding, but this time round Qantas and the ALAEA have struck an in-principle agreement without disputation that delivers each side some significant wins - including the reversal of redundancies and a partial pay-freeze.
The MUA is using its industrial muscle to extract up to $1 million from employers for training funds that the Heydon Royal Commission acknowledges are legitimate, the inquiry heard today.
The impact on public sector bargaining of the implied constitutional limitation on Commonwealth interference with state governments is still not well enough understood, according to long-serving CPSU Victoria secretary Karen Batt.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has declared that a frozen wage is better than no job, while refusing to comment on pay freeze deals being struck by individual employers.
Tasmania's Hodgman Government has introduced draft legislation for its proposal to impose a 12-month freeze on the wages and incremental increases of the state's 24,000 public servants and remove the State IRC's power to award future pay increases above a 2% Government-set cap.
The Fair Work Commission has granted a company's request for good faith bargaining orders to provide for separate negotiations over four agreements in one case, but has knocked back a union's application for orders in another after finding that the employer was entitled to take a "hard" position in discussions.
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.
A new report from a major employment law firm predicts that the Senate will pass the Abbott Government's Fair Work Act and building industry amendments, suggests the next reforms will be limits on industrial action and productivity requirements for enterprise agreements, and highlights the lower than expected activity in the FWC's anti-bullying jurisdiction.
