Key witnesses in this week's collapsed criminal case against two Victorian CFMEU leaders told the Melbourne Magistrates Court that nobody mentioned the word "blackmail" to them until more than a year after a crucial meeting in April 2013.
Unions have criticised the Turnbull Government's engagement of employer-clientele law firm Seyfarth Shaw for a $90,000 review of fatalities in the construction sector.
The Federal Labor Opposition has confirmed it is at odds with key industry bodies in accepting the link between truck drivers' pay and conditions and road safety, but stopped short of committing to re-establishing the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT).
Opposition launches site for labour hire grievances; Sacked Asperger's sufferer granted time extension; Vale David Duncan; IMF has mixed views on NZ IR changes; High Court reserves decision in $6.5 million case.
The head of the newly-merged CFMMEU, Michael O'Connor, says the mega-union will work "slowly and carefully" through the early days of creating the new organisation.
A review of the 2015 amendments to the Fair Work Act's greenfields agreements provisions has rejected union pleas to axe "last offer" arbitration - despite a failure by employers to utilise it - and has recommended reducing from six months to three the "negotiating period" before the FWC can break deadlocks.
The Federal Court has agreed to delay the trial of the AWU's bid to block the Registered Organisation Commission investigation that led to police raids on the union's offices last year.
The federal government's efforts to rein in the ballooning costs of its FEG scheme have received a significant boost after an appeal court overturned a ruling that stripped it of priority status in seeking to recover almost $4 million paid to employees of a collapsed company.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is frustrated it is failing to secure "any real commitment" from Caltex on a "compliance partnership" to handle underpayments by franchisees, despite being in talks for 18 months.
Suppressed wage growth and rising inequality pose a threat to both Australia's economy and its political stability, according to former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan, who used a party-sponsored conference on the weekend to confirm that his personal economic settings had been "moved to the left" by the GFC.
