ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS – workplace determination – ss.266, 424 Fair Work Act 2009 – Full Bench – industrial action related workplace determination – Specialist Diagnostic Services P/L t/a Dorevitch Pathology (Dorevitch) is currently covered by the Mayne Health Dorevitch Pathology Certified Agreement 2004 (2004 Agreement) – the nominal expiry date of the 2004 Agreement was 1 July 2007 – Dorevitch, the Health Services Union of Australia (HSU) and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) have been engaged in periodic bargaining for a proposed replacement agreement – a period of bargaining which occurred in 2009-2010 but which did not result in any agreement being reached – a new round of bargaining commenced in 2016 and continued into 2017, during which employees of Dorevitch took protected industrial action – on 23 August 2017, the Minister for Industrial Relations for Victoria made an application under s.424 of the FW Act in relation to industrial action being engaged in by Dorevitch and the HWU – on 25 August 2017, the Commission made an interim order [PR595602] (Suspension Order) pursuant to s.424(4) to suspend the protected industrial action until further order of the Commission – on 4 September 2017, the Commission made an order pursuant to s.424(1) [PR595823] (Termination Order) to terminate the industrial action, on the basis that pathology services were a critical component of the delivery of health services and that the industrial action would threaten to endanger the life, personal safety, health or welfare of a part of the population through the limitation on the availability of pathology services [[2017] FWC 4610] – s.266(1) provides for the arbitration of outstanding bargaining issues through the making of a ‘workplace determination’ – the ‘post-industrial action negotiating period‘ defined in s.266(3) is a period of 21 days after the date the relevant termination of industrial action instrument was made – in this case, the post-industrial action negotiating period was extended by the Commission to 42 days, and ended on 16 October 2017 – at the end of the post-industrial action negotiation period on 16 October 2017, Dorevitch, the HSU and ANMF had not settled all of the matters that were at issue during bargaining for the agreement – accordingly, the Commission was required to make a workplace determination which resolved the outstanding issues in accordance with the provisions of the FW Act – the parties filed a number of draft workplace determinations setting out their respective positions on a wide range of issues which were the subject of dispute during bargaining – a large number of terms appearing in each party’s draft determination were agreed – a number of matters were not agreed – draft workplace determination to give effect decision of Full Bench provided to the parties – Dorevitch, the HSU and the ANMF are directed to confer and file any submissions on or before 24 September 2018 – Full Bench intend to make the final determination shortly thereafter. Specialist Diagnostic Services P/L t/a Dorevitch Pathology Workplace Determination
September 25, 2018
ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS – approval – ss.185, 604 Fair Work Act 2009 – appeal – Full Bench – at first instance the Commission approved the Clinpath Laboratories – Enterprise Agreement 2017 – appellant advanced three principal grounds of appeal: that, because various pre-approval requirements were not met, the Commission could not have been satisfied that the agreement was genuinely approved; that the Commission did not properly assess whether the Agreement passed the better off overall test (BOOT); and that the Commission did not exercise its powers and functions in a manner that was just and fair – the appellant submitted that the company had provided employees with misleading information about the content of the agreement and had not taken all reasonable steps to explain its terms to employees – an explanation of a significant element of these terms, namely the removal of the ‘2 year rule’, was made only on the afternoon before the vote opened – Full Bench held it cannot be said that the employer took all reasonable steps to ensure that the terms of the agreement and their effect were explained to employees – the Commission did not take these relevant matters into consideration – Full Bench found that the Commission’s decision to approve the agreement was affected by appealable error – permission to appeal granted – appeal upheld – decision at first instance quashed – not necessary to determine the second and third grounds of appeal. Appeal by Health Services Union against decision of Johns C of 8 June 2018 [[2018] FWCA 3391] Re: Clinpath Laboratories P/L and Ors
September 24, 2018
BUPA Aged Care has a s.372 (Application to deal with other contravention disputes) before Vice President Catanzariti in his Sydney chambers (Doroja).
September 24, 2018
Hills Limited has a s.394 (Application for unfair dismissal remedy) matter with which it must deal before Commissioner McKenna in Hearing Room 12-2 – Level 12 at noon in Sydney (Kulendran).
September 24, 2018
St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney Limited must face a s.372 (Application to deal with other contravention disputes) before Fair Work Vice President Catanzariti in his Sydney chambers (Harris).
September 24, 2018
The Health Services Union and Mercy Health are involved in a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) in front of Fair Work Commissioner Cribb in Conference Room E & F – Level 6 in Melbourne at 4.30pm
September 24, 2018
A s.185 (Enterprise agreement) application by Launceston Women’s Shelter Inc T/A Magnolia Place LWS for its Magnolia Place LWS Enterprise Agreement 2017 has been approved by Fair Work Commissioner Saunders in Newcastle on 21 September 2018.
September 24, 2018
An elderly man was “left untreated to die in pain” and health services were more intent on defending their actions than analysing the facts, a damning coronial inquest into the death of two men in Darwin has revealed. Henry Wilson, 77, died from sepsis on September 19, 2016 — but despite that, Top End Health Service never reported his case to the coroner. Rather, the case was taken on as a “discretionary” inquest — meaning it was not legally required — following the service’s “poor response” to an expert report, which found there were delays in instituting treatment. On September 18, Mr Wilson was diagnosed with peritonitis during treatment for stage 4 colorectal cancer. Coroner Greg Cavanagh found Mr Wilson “waited in pain and feeling that his body was shutting down another 24 hours until the conversation was had with him about further procedures”. “There seemed however to be a lack of urgency in making a diagnosis,” he wrote. “It took Mr Wilson’s daughter demanding something be done before scans were ordered.” Mr Wilson died one day later from sepsis. The most junior doctor on the team, an intern, was asked to break the news to his family. The coroner found Mr Wilson’s death identified a number of issues, including poor communication with the family, poor communication between doctors, poor note taking, inadequate treatment of a dying man and failure to report the death to the coroner. “The communication issues were denied by the institution and in effect the deceased was blamed. “The Top End Health Service seemed more intent on defending its actions than critically analysing the facts.” NT Health chief executive Catherine Stoddart said the department would examine the recommendations and respond “in due time”.
