A leading labour law academic has told an IR conference that expanding the FWC's power to arbitrate agreement negotiations will be "the single biggest challenge" posed by the Secure Jobs changes, while the head of a peak state employer group's law firm says it is the "Damoclesean threat of the sword" that will bring people to the table.
The AiG says the FWC should take into account the Budget's substantial cost-of-living relief for the low-paid in granting an increase no higher than 3.8% in this year's minimum wage case, while the Albanese Government says there are "no signs" of a wage-price spiral and reiterates its view that the real wages of low-paid workers should not "go backwards".
A HR manager has failed to block a general protections claim despite insisting the employer did not know that a supervisor with no authority to do so had texted the worker to collect his tools and "see you [in] court if u want".
A manager has won an anti-suit injunction against his employer after it responded to his Federal Circuit and Family Court case seeking unpaid statutory entitlements by filing a cross-claim in a lower court.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has today continued his "rebalancing" of the Fair Work Commission, appointing seven commissioners and a deputy president, all with union or union-friendly backgrounds.
A leading IR law academic says that high casual employment is an entrenched "cultural problem" that needs a solution and that there is likely to be an "explosion" in sham contracting if the Government fails to address last year's High Court rulings in Jamsek and Personnel Contracting.
A female engineer suing BHP in an adverse action case claims a male colleague told her it was a compliment when he "volunteered" her to take notes at a meeting.
The Albanese Government has rejected a recommendation by a Senate inquiry to consider amending competition law to make wage theft an anti-competitive practice.
The Coalition has given notice of amendments to provisions in the Protecting Worker Entitlements legislation that would allow employees to authorise employers to make payroll deductions that vary from time-to-time, alleging it is a "pretty transparent attempt" by the Albanese Government to address the decline in union membership.
The FWC has found that although a worker's accidental removal of tools from a mine site provided a valid reason, his sacking was unfair because his labour hire employer failed to investigate the incident and didn't give him proper notice, or the opportunity to respond.
