In a move that the government has dismissed as a political stunt, the ACTU has told Employment Minister Eric Abetz he should suspend his IR legislative agenda for at least a year to enable the Heydon trade union inquiry and the Productivity Commission Fair Work Act review to run their course.
Employees should be completely free to choose their superannuation funds, and they should be run by trustee boards dominated by independent directors, according to the Murray financial system inquiry's report.
An eminent UK academic says employers are stepping up their attack on an internationally-recognised right to strike, with unions responding by pushing for the issue to be resolved once and for all by the International Court of Justice.
The Fair Work Commission will have to consider whether enterprise agreements contain productivity improvements before it approves them, while unions face additional hurdles to protected action, under the Coalition's latest IR bill.
The Australian Institute of Employment Rights says the pending Productivity Commission review of the Fair Work laws risks being a narrow, market-oriented exercise if its terms of reference do not embrace international human rights and labour standards, in a discussion paper released today.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has acknowledged that the initial April 2015 deadline for the Productivity Commission's IR review is now unrealistic and has also indicated he might not respond to the road safety remuneration tribunal review this year.
Victorian Labor has committed to abolishing the state's construction industry code of practice, repealing the Napthine Government’s anti-picket laws and creating two new public holidays if elected on November 29.
In a wide-ranging attack on the Heydon Royal Commission, ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons has dubbed it as part of a conservative agenda to restrict "organising, industrial action, right of entry, public campaigning, political action and expenditure, litigation, access to arbitration and the right to be self-governing".
