CDU had a big enterprise bargaining win last year, when staff voted for a new enterprise agreement that the National Tertiary Education Union opposed

But the NTEU is not used to losing votes and took the matter to the Fair Work Commission (CMM January 27).

Where  Commissioner Platt declined to approve the agreement because the university had allowed casual staff to vote, who were not employed on the day of the ballot and if they all voted in favour they could have carried the day for the university

However the university appealed and on Friday a full bench of the FWC agreed, concluding that Commissioner Platt had got the numbers on the vote wrong and sent the university’s application back to him.

But it’s still not all over the NTEU and the Community and Public Sector Union have “other issues concerning approval.”