Victorian workers who called community-based employment rights advocate JobWatch after the advent of Work Choices were negative about and fearful of the legislation, with their primary concern the job insecurity resulting from unfair dismissal changes, according to a new study.
The High Court's Justice Michael Kirby has highlighted the role of "the now often despised" IR tribunals in removing gender and pay inequality, saying that it wasn't secured by individual bargaining or workplace agreements.
The ACTU claims a new non-union meat industry agreement proves the fairness test isn't working, because the deal cuts pay by up to $88 a week, provides an annual pay rise of just 2% a year, removes rest breaks and annual leave loading and reduces overtime rates, but fails to fairly compensate workers.
Employers are treating Work Choices' requirement to provide unpaid maternity leave as an "aspirational goal" and believe the operational reasons exemption under the law gives them the right to sack or demote pregnant women, according to a new academic report commissioned by Victoria's Workplace Rights Advocate.
An AIRC full bench has thrown out for being out of time an unfair dismissal case that was initially rejected when a single member ruled that a NAPSA wasn’t an award for the purposes of the Workplace Relations Act’s termination of employment provisions.
The Australian employer community has responded to Work Choices like sharks that have tasted blood, and they “monstered” Labor over the first version of Forward with Fairness to ensure they didn’t have to stop their feeding frenzy, according to Workplace Research Centre director John Buchanan.
Five years after her last attempt, Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja has again introduced into parliament a bill providing for government-funded paid maternity leave.
The Federal Court has ordered a Tasmanian hotel group to pay a $170,000 penalty, after finding it engaged in deliberate, reprehensible conduct when it applied duress in a bid to force vulnerable employees to sign AWAs that cut their pay.
Employers are using template non-union collective agreements under Work Choices to strip away conditions and cut pay by up to 18% in retail and 12% in hospitality, according to comprehensive analysis released today by the Workplace Research Centre.
Victoria Police and the state Police Association have today agreed in principle to a settlement of the state's long-running pay dispute, but both sides differed on the full extent of wage rises under the new enterprise agreement.
