In a statement on social media, the alliance said the full bench decision was a "massive win" and had "put the industry on notice that we will stop at nothing to ensure that offshore workers start getting a better deal".

"We have to move away from base line agreements being topped up by employment contracts ... the only proper security of wages and allowances comes in the form of an enterprise agreement which sets out the actual rates, allowances and conditions."

Unions have historically struggled to organise workers on offshore platforms due to logistical difficulties and coverage rules that prevent the MUA from representing workers on structures without a propeller.

But the alliance, formed last year, has allowed the unions to pool their resources and the AWU to employ the more militant MUA organisers, and so informally give the latter union expanded coverage and entry rights.

From late 2018 to mid-2019, the alliance recruited about 25 members from Rigforce as part of a public campaign that targeted the company's agreement for renegotiation once it expired.

But when it finally requested Rigforce recognise it as a bargaining representative in June the company refused.

Unknown to the unions, Rigforce had already negotiated a new agreement three months prior via a related corporate entity that was separate from the one that employed the bulk of its workforce.

The company reached the agreement with three newly hired casuals through individual discussions and successfully got Fair Work to approve the deal without opposition in a four-paragraph decision.

Once the unions found out, the AWU appealed the approval on the basis that the agreement was a sham and that Rigforce was now likely to move its workforce to the entity covered by the new non-union deal.

The full bench found that while it could be inferred that Rigforce had changed its employing entity to avoid bargaining with the AWU, the act's requirements did not deal with such situations.

However, the bench held the company had failed to explain the agreement when it incorrectly told workers their minimum pay would increase.

"It is a statement of the obvious that rates of pay are, to employees, likely to be the most fundamentally important aspect of an enterprise agreement," the bench said.

That position was no different where employees are paid higher than the agreement, it said, particularlysince "they were concerned about the prospect of their pay rates being reduced in the future ... and Rigforce advised them that this could possibly happen".

The bench referred the deal back to the commission to consider whether it was "genuinely agreed" and any potential undertakings.

Rigforce and the alliance, who are understood to be in discussions since the decision, declined to comment.

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Union halts 'race to the bottom' in offshore oil and gas - The Australian Financial Review