It was previously reported that Ausgrid had made an abrupt decision to have members vote on a replacement for their Enterprise Agreement before negotiations had reached their natural conclusion. After having the proposed Agreement rejected, Ausgrid decided that they still weren’t really interested in having negotiations reach a natural conclusion so they opted to put the exact same Agreement out to another vote, only for a LARGER no vote to be the result.
The negotiations are currently the subject of Fair Work Commission proceedings at Ausgrid’s initiation where we are confident that the Commission will force the business’ hand to properly negotiate in good faith.
It was also previously reported that Endeavour Energy negotiations had stalled, and that the parties were entering into facilitated bargaining where Max Kimber SC would be engaged to assist bargaining come to a conclusion. Unfortunately, this process failed and the parties (at the time of writing) await to have the non-agreed items determined by the Fair Work Commission in intractable bargaining proceedings with hearing dates yet to be confirmed.
In the case of Transgrid, the intractable bargaining proceedings initiated by that business are at an advanced stage in that the parties will be entering a 5-day hearing period in the week beginning December 16th. It will be through these proceedings that members will have a 3 member FWC panel determine the wage increases, with a decision expected in the first quarter of next year.
