Towage company Svitzer is set to lock out its harbour tugboat workforce, claiming it has been forced into it by continuing disruptive protected action by three maritime unions.
Adelaide University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart has told a Senate hearing that the Albanese Government should withdraw and rework a contentious aspect of its Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill, suggesting there is a "problem with the legislation" if as a technical expert he is unable to answer a simple question about coverage in the single interest bargaining provisions.
A large employer has been fined almost $100,000 after a court rejected its "bare apology" for requiring a newly-arrived migrant to work 12 extra hours a week for more than three years.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has warned that the prescriptive amendments sought by business and employer groups to the Secure Jobs Bill's multi-employer stream could render it as "ineffective and unusable" as the 13-year old Act's low paid bargaining stream, which hasn't been used since 2014 because parties "gave up on it".
BHP Coal is facing penalties and compensation payments for unlawfully "demobilising" a labour hire truck driver shortly after she refused to dump a load in a poorly-lit area, while it is also accused of "sophistry" in arguing that she had not properly addressed its potential motives.
A senior FWC member has described a public transport agency's vaccination policy as "pressur[ing]" workers to "give up [the] fundamental right" to bodily integrity, before ordering it to pay five train drivers sidelined because of their non-compliance.
A Federal Court judge has while fining a franchisor almost $500,000 for deliberately underpaying Taiwanese interns speculated that a recent High Court ruling will impel more parties to agree on penalties rather than go to trial, an "unfortunate by-product" being fewer judgments offering "yardsticks" for future cases.
The FWC has upheld the demotion of a Catholic school teacher who continually undermined the schools' leadership before maintaining that his "only master was God".
While the Albanese Government remains hopeful it can make multi-employer bargaining changes more palatable to win Senate support, a labour law expert says onerous requirements will limit the effectiveness of the expanded single-interest stream.
The Albanese Government will today table its foreshadowed amendments to the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill, as it seeks to provide "more comfort" to key Independent Senator David Pocock on proposed multi-employer bargaining reforms.
