The Master Builders Association has labelled as "the most restrictive in decades" a CFMMEU draft agreement seeking annual 5% pay rises and increased allowances, questioning the union's capacity to negotiate without offering productivity gains.
The FWC has rejected arguments that the CFMEU engaged in pattern bargaining during negotiations over agreements with two crane operators, clearing the path for indefinite strikes to begin early this morning.
The CFMMEU is negotiating short-term enterprise agreements with some employers so that it can pursue more beneficial deals if there is a change in the "legislative industrial climate", the Fair Work Commission has been told.
Union calls for a return to industry-wide bargaining to boost workers' earnings have won the backing of the OECD, which says in its annual global employment report that negotiations across industry sectors can lead to "lower wage inequality".
The Greens intend to use their leverage in the Senate to press a future Federal Labor Government to permit industry-wide bargaining, enshrine the right to strike and remove restrictions on agreement content.
The Turnbull Government has blasted a major builder that negotiated a precedent-setting enterprise agreement with the CFMEU as being "highly unrepresentative" of the construction industry, describing the deal as an act of "commercial self-harm".
Master Builders Association Victoria and the CFMEU's state branch have squared off following union claims that more than 100 employers have signed three-year pattern agreements, pre-empting the proposed new national construction code.
A mass meeting of Victorian CFMEU members in Melbourne has today unanimously endorsed a new three-year pattern agreement that provides annual pay rises of 5% over three years.
The Turnbull Government granted FWBC director Nigel Hadgkiss new powers soon before calling the federal election, in a bid to stop builders and contractors agreeing to "union-friendly" clauses in enterprise agreements.
A former general manager of the CFMEU's NSW branch objected in 2005 to a proposed $100,000 "donation" from the builder Thiess Hochtief, the Heydon Royal Commission heard today.