Halliburton Australia's decision to terminate the services of an injured contract mining worker after less than a month's employment on probation was not discriminatory, a tribunal has found.
nergex loses bid to stop ETU emergency work bans; Extra 86,000 workers needed by 2020 for minerals boom; Jetstar's Joyce to replace Dixon as Qantas chief executive; AFAP extends Virgin Blue coverage overseas; and Retailer backpays $247,000 to 173 staff after WO investigation.
A storeman sacked for calling a co-worker a "camel fucker" and a "wog" has lost his unfair dismissal claim in the AIRC, while his colleague who was sacked after laughing at the comments has won five weeks' pay.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow is calling for Labor to expand employees' right to request flexible work and to extend its proposed multi-employer bargaining system for low-paid employees. She is also urging a new approach to gender pay equity, noting that "inequity exists at all levels" and citing executive HR managers, where the gender gap is "a massive 43 per cent".
Some 8,000 Brisbane City Council workers will receive a 4.5% increase, under a one-year extension to the organisation's 2005-08 agreement with unions. The deal also changes procedures for dealing with employees who have recurrent sick leave absences.
Government subsidies may be contributing to escalating childcare costs, despite them having only a weak impact on increasing women's participation in the workforce, according to analysis by the Centre for Independent Studies.
Inflation result to heighten wage-price spiral fears; Give workers carbon permits, says AWU; AMWU says polling shows members want Government investment in low carbon technologies; and Work Choices advisor Briggs wins Liberal preselection.
Telstra says a confidential document released by the ACTU detailing the company's strategy for last year's roll-out of 15,000 AWAs is "nothing new" and has already been investigated by the Workplace Ombudsman.
Wages growth to be at least 4.4%, jobs to keep growing, says Access Economics; Reserve Bank plays down risk of wages/inflation spiral; WO clears Telstra of AWA duress, but finds case against one manager; and Queensland urges older workers to put off retirement.
Qantas and its licenced aircraft maintenance engineers reached in-principle agreement last night, bringing to an end the industrial action that has seriously disrupted flight schedules, while the airline has today announced it will cut about 1,500 jobs in response to rising fuel prices.
