Serco Sodexo Defence Services Pty Ltd has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission it obtained employment for the vast bulk of its workforce when it lost its Defence Department contracts last year, and now faces a hefty redundancy bill for the hundreds of employees who found jobs with the new contractors.
NSW power unions are pushing for a job security clause to cover thousands of workers at the state's two biggest "poles and wires" network businesses, which have been earmarked for privatisation if the Coalition is returned in March.
Toyota Australia is set to cut hundreds of white-collar jobs and service positions in addition to axing 2500 production workers, once it ends local car manufacturing in late 2017.
A Coalition Senate committee majority is recommending that parliament pass unamended the Federal Government bill that caps the redundancy entitlements of insolvent company employees at 16 weeks, while Labor and the Greens are opposing its passage.
The Abbott Government this morning introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives to cap redundancy payments under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme at a maximum of 16 weeks, describing the current benefits for employees of insolvent companies as "overly generous" and as creating a "moral hazard".
Requiring employees to sit in a "slow moving car park queue" and travel up to two hours a day to and from a new work location does not count as reasonable alternative employment, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in a decision to award six workers redundancy pay.
The Department of Employment has referred to the corporate watchdog allegations that a textile company entered into “contrived arrangements” to avoid paying redundancy entitlements to 60 workers.
News Corp Australia has offered a real pay cut for several thousand journalists employed at its Australian newspapers and is also seeking to reduce redundancy entitlements for new hires.
