In an important ruling for unions runnning proxy campaigns against public companies, the Federal Court has found the Finance Sector Union didn't unlawfully coerce the Commonwealth Bank to make a collective agreement when it ran a campaign targeting its shareholders in 2004.
A major logistics company has been ordered to pay $25,000 in damages to a Muslim former employee who was called "bombchucker" and "Osama Bin Laden" by work colleagues.
A major employer has failed to strike out a discrimination case by a sales representative with an alleged gambling addiction who was denied salary maintenance when she suddenly moved from Melbourne to Perth to escape Victoria's poker machines.
Some 2,700 employees of Coles Myer subsidiary OfficeWorks have won a 3.5% annual pay rise under a proposed new deal with the SDA that gives the company more rostering flexibility during peak times.
Major construction player John Holland was the first company to lodge a Work Choices employer greenfields agreement, and it has since gone on to register five more.
Some 20,000 Target employees will receive a 3.8% annual pay rise under one of the first major union retail agreements struck under Work Choices, while the SDA has also now finalised deals with Super Cheap Auto and Ikea.
The ALP will allow Fringe Benefits Tax exemptions for employers providing childcare as part of an early childhood policy that would also let workers salary sacrifice fees for employer-provided child care.
Faced with having to negotiate agreements under Work Choices for up to 80 agencies this year, the CPSU has beefed-up its bargaining resources and put in place a "core" bargaining claim to underpin its campaigns in the workplace.
The day after Opposition Leader Kim Beazley labelled the Federal Government's foreign apprenticeship visa scheme "disgraceful", the Northern Territory Government has announced it won't be participating in it.
