Queensland Council of Unions secretary Jacqueline King says Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is "receptive" to calls for new gender equity laws replicating the State's legislation that has "made more of a difference" in its first year than in the previous two decades under the Queensland IRC's equal remuneration principle.
A jeweller who showered a manager with gifts and compliments, along with unrequited declarations of his affections and a slap on the bottom, is facing a record damages payout for sexually harassing her and victimising her for complaining about it, while his law firm is under fire for the "intimidatory and vindictive" tone of its correspondence.
A former Indian High Commissioner who paid a live-in domestic worker $9 a day to keep his eight-bedroom Canberra home, after he arranged for her "posting" in Australia for the "reception and entertainment of guests", has been ordered to pay more than $130,000 compensation.
A tribunal has awarded $236,000 in damages, plus potential further lost earnings and interest, to a long-serving language teacher who developed a psychological injury when his employer "excluded" him from the workplace for two years after he suffered a debilitating spinal stroke.
Optus has again failed to overturn a finding that underpaying workers' long service leave entitlements when they leave might count as a continuing offence under Victorian law, clearing the way for the State's Wage Inspectorate to pursue daily fines that could run into millions for the period before the telco rectified the alleged issue.
The Qantas "weaponisation" of labour hire underlines the need for the "same job, same pay" provisions in Labor's Closing Loopholes legislation, according to the airline's flight crew union.
JobKeeper kept people in work and prevented widespread business failures during the coronavirus pandemic, but in future crises the Government should consider improvements, including a tiered wage subsidy, according to Treasury's evaluation of the landmark scheme.
A FWC presidential member has taken a harder line on extending notice periods for protected action, rejecting Virgin Australia's bid to increase warnings of strikes and bans from three to seven days, because it would result in diminished worker bargaining power.
Biotechnology giant CSL has made a rare application for bargaining orders against two maintenance unions, the ETU and AMWU, whose members voted up protected action ballots in September.
Container terminal operator DP World says it is facing continuing protected action by MUA members until at least November 13, as the cost of the parties' bargaining impasse mounts.
