Farstad Shipping (The Indian Pacific) v MUA

A party can be genuinely trying to reach agreement even if you have not fully particularised its major claims. http://www.fwa.gov.au/decisionssigned/html/2011fwafb1686.htm In this case, the MUA began negotiations with the shipping industry about a log of claims. The MUA indicated it was prepared to negotiate individually with the employer on some of the matters in its […]

Genuinely Trying

In this case, the MUA began negotiations with the shipping industry about a log of claims. The union indicated it was prepared to negotiate individually with the employer on some of the matters in its industry log of claims, and three meetings were held between the union and the employer before the union sought a […]

Commission sets approval guidelines

McDonalds appealed against a decision of McKenna C of FWA refusing to approve the McDonalds Australia Enterprise Agreement 2009, on grounds including that the pre-approval steps had not been complied with and the agreement did not pass the no-disadvantage test. The McDonalds agreement was made in collaboration with the SDA and covered approximately 80,000 employees […]

Drafting Errors Sink Agreement

The devil is in the detail, as the saying goes, so rushing the job of drafting is a high risk approach, as a transport operator found out when its agreement did not pass muster. The company was anxious to qualify as a preferred tenderer for work on projects which required bidders to have an enterprise […]

To be protected you need to be genuinely trying

The parties (John Holland Rail Pty. Ltd, The Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union and the Australian Workers’ Union) were engaged in enterprise agreement negotiations for a single agreement to replace three existing agreements over approximately 12 months. The employer eventually put a proposed agreement to employees to vote upon and employees voted against […]