Good Faith Bargaining - The Battle Begins

In the last fortnight, Fair Work Australia (FWA) has taken the controversial move of halting the vote on three separate enterprise agreements following claims by interested unions that the employers' were not bargaining in good faith.

The orders by FWA have sharpened the conflict between Australian employers and the union movement as both groups come to grips with the new bargaining requirements under the Fair Work Act (the Act).

At the heart of the controversy is whether the unions, through FWA, can stop an employer from bargaining with its employees.

Where an employer has put a draft agreement to its employees, and requested that they vote on that agreement, can a union (as a bargaining agent) intervene in that process, in effect, stopping the vote and forcing the employer to bargain with the union? Is this an abuse of FWA's powers?