Woolworths and Coles workers are preparing for their first-ever nationwide strike tomorrow, with stores in nearly all major capital cities set to be impacted.

Members of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU) will stop work from 10am on Saturday for two hours over work and pay conditions.

As part of the industrial action, partial work bans will come into effect at Coles tomorrow while bans at Woolworths have been in place for over a week.

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Tasks impacted by the bans include a refusal to crush cardboard boxes, clean toilets, pack online orders and clear loose stock left on the floor or registers.

Industrial action has already kicked off at Coles in Broken Hill, according to the union's social media with staff claiming they will not be paid for participating in the bans. 

RAFFWU federal secretary Josh Cullinan said members were fighting for an hourly base rate of $29, workplace measures to counter retail abuse and secure jobs for casual workers.

"Workers are paid a few cents more than the minimum wage," he told 9news.com.au.

"They just want a living wage to deal with the rising cost of living, they can't even afford the groceries they're selling."

"We want to see each time a worker is assaulted or abused to be treated like a crime.

"The level of abuse, threats intimidation and assaults is unprecedented and outrageous and the employers are not lifting a finger to stop it.

"We also want to see casual workers getting ongoing jobs.

"They just want to be able to have more hours in their contract to rely on and mega companies making mega profits should be able to provide that."

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Woolworths said the action will have minimal impact on store operations with about 300 of its 130,000 employees expected to strike.

"Only individuals who have appointed RAFFWU as their bargaining representative are able to participate in the proposed industrial action," a Woolworths spokesperson told 9news.com.au.

"We have been in regular contact with RAFFWU bargaining representatives and an initial bargaining meeting has already occurred.

"We have a long history of bargaining in good faith with our team and will continue to do so.

"However, we acknowledge and respect the right of team members to take protected industrial action."

A Coles spokesperson said the company was "working collaboratively with our team members and bargaining representatives on a proposal for a new Supermarket Enterprise Agreement".

"Coles is committed to delivering an outcome that balances the needs of our team members, the sustainability of our business and ensures we can continue to deliver great value and experiences for our customers," the spokesperson said.

According to the supermarket giant, about 450 Coles workers are registered with the RAFFWU and a majority of stores have less than five members each.

Both Coles and Woolworths passed on a 5.75 per cent wage increase to employees in July after the Fair Work Commission's decision to increase minimum wage. 

Members of the RAFFWU have been ordered to meet to take industrial action at the following sites:

Victoria

Melbourne – Coles Spencer Street (near Southern Cross Station)

Gippsland – Coles Traralgon Central

NSW

Sydney – Belmore Park, Eddy Ave entrance, Haymarket (near Central Station)

Broken Hill – Woolworths Broken Hill

Queensland

Brisbane – outside Myer Centre McDonald's at the corner of Elizabeth and Albert streets

Northern Brisbane – Woolworths Narangba

Charters Towers – Woolworths Charters Towers

Gladstone – Coles Gladstone

Western Australia

Perth – Coles Byford

Australian Capital Territory

Canberra – Coles Tuggeranong

South Australia

Adelaide – Woolworths Aberfoyle Park

No industrial action has been announced for supermarkets in Tasmania.

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About two-thirds of chief executives predict the end to working from home is nigh with workers to make a full return to the office within the next three years.

KPMG's global survey of more than 1300 CEOs found 64 per cent believed employees will be based in the office five days a week in three years time as the search for talent is reprioritised.

"The data underscores the immense pressure on CEOs to make quick decisions on the big issues," said KMPG International's Global Head of People, Nhlamu Dlomu.

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"The war for talent may have softened in this period of economic uncertainty, but the evidence suggests a one-size-fits-all approach to return-to-office could be detrimental."

Additionally the survey found 87 per cent of CEOs were likely to reward employees who make an effort to come into the office.

Incentives included, delegating returning staff members with favourable assignments, offering raises or giving promotions.

"This sentiment underscores the persistence of traditional office-centric thinking among CEOs," the report said.

"It comes against a backdrop of the debate surrounding hybrid working, which has had a largely positive impact on productivity over the past three years and has strong employee support, particularly among the younger generation of workers."

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The report noted that leaders must ensure talent is nurtured and supported as they make the transition back to the office.

"As organisations continue to roll out their return-to-office plans, it is crucial that leaders take a long-term view that embraces the employee value proposition and encompasses the considerations and needs of employees to ensure that talent is nurtured and supported."

The survey also found a majority of CEOs were concerned about the pace of progress on inclusion, diversity and equity in the workplace.

About 66 per cent said progress on inclusion and diversity has moved too slowly in the business world, while 77 per cent said achieving diversity requires making a change across the senior leadership level.

Former NRL rising star Manese Fainu will be forced to serve out his prison sentence for stabbing another man in the back during a brawl.

On Friday, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed the 25-year-old's bid to overturn his conviction on the grounds the jury's verdict was unreasonable.

Fainu was found guilty in August last year of wounding Faamanu Levi with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at Wattle Grove on a night in October 2019.

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He received a maximum jail sentence of eight years with a non-parole period of four years and three months.

During the 10-day trial, one witness testified to seeing Fainu plunge a steak knife into Levi's back during a car park brawl.

In his appeal, Fainu's lawyers argued the witness testimony was unreliable as it was at odds with the balance of the evidence.

They argued the witnesses could have been influenced either by each other or by an image they looked up online afterwards of Fainu wearing a sling, which was later used to identify him.

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"There were multiple other males involved in the altercation who could have been responsible for the stabbing," they argued.

But Justice Natalie Adams, one of the three judges who upheld the conviction, said there were some inconsistencies in witness evidence but overall there was enough proof to implicate Fainu in the stabbing.

"I am satisfied … that upon the whole of the evidence it was open to the jury to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the applicant was guilty," she said.

The stabbing occurred after an earlier fight on the dancefloor of an alcohol-free charity event organised by the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

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The jurors were told Fainu and a friend known as "Big Buck" were involved in the fight and ushered outside by Levi, who told them not to fight on church grounds.

Although Levi was unable to identify who stabbed him in the back, CCTV footage showed Fainu and his four friends returning to the car park where the brawl occurred.

Two witnesses identified Fainu as the assailant by the sling, which he was wearing for a shoulder injury.

In 2019, Fainu was on track to earn a massive salary as a promising rugby league player with the Manly Sea Eagles, however was dropped due to the National Rugby League's no-fault stand-down policy.

He played 34 games for the club and one international for Tonga.

A panel of judges has ruled to keep notorious corrupt ex-Labor minister Eddie Obeid behind bars, along with his son Moses and co-conspirator Ian Macdonald.

The trio were found guilty in 2021 over a coal exploration licence conspiracy following a lengthy investigation by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

On Friday, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed an appeal to have their convictions overturned.

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Eddie Obeid became a symbol of political corruption in NSW and spurred a crackdown on dishonest behaviour in the state's upper echelons.

In October 2021, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton jailed the now close-to-80-year-old for at least three years and 10 months, his son for at least three years and the now 74-year-old Macdonald for at least five years and three months.

She found all three guilty of conspiring for the then-state resources minister Macdonald to engage in misconduct between 2007 and 2009 following a lengthy and complex judge-alone trial.

Macdonald was found to have provided confidential information to the Obeids over a coal exploration licence that delivered a $30 million windfall to their family.

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On Friday, Macdonald failed in a separate appeal to have his sentence shortened.

His lawyers argued, among other grounds, that the five-year minimum sentence was manifestly excessive and the judge's conclusion that the objective seriousness of the conspiracy was "of the highest order" was not correct.

Chief Justice Andrew Bell was one of three judges to uphold the sentence, calling it appropriate and in line with the seriousness of the offence.

"Actions utterly corrosive of public trust by a minister of the Crown do unquantifiable damage to our democracy," he said.

After spiking to alarming levels just last week, global oil prices are suddenly in free-fall mode.

The dramatic reversal should bring relief to drivers as well as nervous central bankers very soon.

American oil prices plunged by 5.6 per cent to $US84.22 ($132) a barrel on Wednesday, marking the biggest one-day decline in a year.

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Crude dropped even further on Thursday, sinking as low as $US82.24 ($129) a barrel, a five-week low.

This is quite the U-turn, even for the notoriously boom-to-bust oil market.

As recently as last week, US crude briefly touched $US95 ($149) a barrel and Wall Street banks were predicting $US100 ($156) or higher amid Saudi Arabia and Russia's aggressive supply cuts.

Now, petrol prices in the US are already starting to retreat and experts predict sharper drops to come.

American petrol prices will tumble to nearly 92 US cents ($1.44) over the next few weeks, Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates,

It would also come as a relief to officials inside the White House and the US Federal Reserve who nervously watched the recent jump in oil prices and considered the damage it could do to consumer confidence and inflation.

Indeed, the recent jump in petrol prices almost single-handedly caused US inflation to heat up last month.

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Boom to bust

So why did oil prices go from spiking to plunging?

Some argue that oil bulls, including hedge funds, had become excessively bullish.

Egged on by Saudi Arabia's supply cuts, they piled in to make bets that prices would go higher and higher — even though fundamentals didn't justify it.

"A lot of speculative pressure is being let out of the tyres," Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler, said.

"It was stretched taut like a rubber band, hence a couple of bearish triggers caused price to snap back in short, sharp fashion," Smith said.

The latest trigger was a US government report released Wednesday that showed petrol inventories unexpectedly soared last week.

That in turn raised concerns about weakening demand for petrol.

Temporary relief?

Of course, it's worth noting that the situation in the oil market can change in the blink of an eye, as the past week demonstrates.

There's always a risk that more aggressive steps by OPEC+ to cut supply or disruptions caused by Russia's war in Ukraine could cause oil and gasoline prices to move higher again.

Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service, said he is expecting prices at the pump to rebound early next year as demand from drivers returns and refineries struggle to keep up.

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