Parliamentarians leading tributes to former Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching have recalled her pride in and lessons learned from her brief time in the scandal-plagued Health Services Union, with a Coalition minister acknowledging the period had "hardened" her for politics.
In a case applying the High Court's new guidelines on contractors, a judge has rejected a worker's bid for leave, super and redundancy payments after finding he was not an employee despite averaging 38 hours a week over eight years for a solitary employer.
The ACTU will pursue a 5% increase across all award rates in this year's minimum wage review, arguing it is needed to compensate workers for cost of living pressures.
In a decision closely examining the FWC's powers to make scope orders, a full bench majority has found that an employer's failure to spell out classifications for a proposed agreement rendered the process "defective".
The FWC has ordered Qantas to reinstate a trainer accused of inappropriately staring at a female employee's breasts during a "distinguishably lewd" safety demonstration, while taking aim at a "ludicrous" video it used to demonstrate s-xual harassment.
With a federal election likely in May, IR Minister Michaelia Cash has thumbed her nose at Labor's plan to axe the Registered Organisations Commission, giving Mark Bielecki another two years as its leader.
A FWC member has applied the "well known 'duck principle'" in holding that a tyre recycling company suspected of phoenixing unfairly sacked a worker who complained about unpaid superannuation, before threatening to kill a director.
With the Coalition confirming it is still committed to remaining measures in its Omnibus Bill and Labor pledging to double down on insecure work, labour law academic Andrew Stewart says in a pre-Budget policy analysis that the nation faces a "big choice" on IR regulation.
Unions must adopt inventive strategies such as those used by Hospo Voice and RAFFWU to connect with and recruit workers, alongside the organising model used for the past 20 years, but legislative change is also necessary to enable multi-employer bargaining and allow industry-wide or supply-chain based protected action in support of it, according to a leading IR academic.
