A logistics company has failed to win approval for a greenfields deal as it only notified the MUA's WA branch despite provisions for future national expansion, and it offers "substantially inferior" pay and conditions.
As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.
John Holland's failure to identify the significance of a decision rejecting its earlier greenfields deal when applying to have an almost identical one approved "verged on misleading", a FWC full bench has held, quashing its approval while refusing to quietly do so "by consent".
The Coalition has today revealed a pre-election compromise position on its long-held push for "life-of-project" agreements, which would have a maximum term of six years, down on the eight-year regime jettisoned from its IR Omnibus Bill, but unions say it amounts to another Government strategy to cap pay rises.
Despite AWU objections, the FWC has approved an employer's greenfields civil construction deal with rival the CFMMEU, observing that the former's historic coverage of the sector did not guarantee a place at the negotiating table.
A full Federal Court has knocked back a Transport for NSW bid to prevent disclosure of tender documents and other evidence in the RTBU's challenge to an FWC finding that a privatised Sydney bus service is a genuine new enterprise that can be covered by a greenfields agreement.
In another test of public-private ventures, prison officers at the country's largest and newest correctional centre are considering striking after overwhelmingly rejecting what the CPSU called a "lowball" deal put forward by operator Serco Australia.
AMMA says key ALP figures have been "generally receptive" to employer-proposed concessions to garner support for revised major projects greenfields agreement reforms, which would ensure annual pay rises and access to arbitration during six-year deals.
The Morrison Government has committed to reintroducing the major projects greenfields agreement provisions it removed from the IR Omnibus Bill, while employer organisations are pushing it to revive other jettisoned elements that would have overhauled enterprise bargaining and the award system.