The Victorian Government, the State's Trades Hall and the ASU are calling for the Albanese Government to stick to its pre-election commitment to enact a carve-out in the Closing Loopholes Bill so that state wage theft laws can continue to operate.
State Labor governments intervening in a High Court constitutional challenge to Victoria's wage theft laws are arguing there is no inconsistency with the Fair Work Act that could void a criminal prosecution, in a case coinciding with the Albanese Government's plan to introduce federal sanctions of up to 10 years in prison and maximum fines of $8 million.
Wall-to-wall Labor governments across mainland Australia provide the opportunity to re-introduce the principle of "safe rates" into the transport industry by the end of the year, according to the new NSW Treasurer, Daniel Mookhey.
The WA Court of Appeal has thrown out a nursing assistant's challenge to a judge's rejection of her $750,000 defamation claim, which she brought against her employer because a registered nurse accused her of saying "I hate working with Africans".
A majority of Australia's governments have today agreed to incorporate industrial manslaughter provisions in the national model OHS laws, while they unanimously backed an immediate start to preparatory work for a ban on manufactured stone products linked with silicosis and other lung diseases.
Unions have welcomed recommendations in a government-commissioned review of safety regulations addressing s-xual assault and harassment in WA's mining industry, but have expressed dismay at evidence that employers are deliberately failing to report incidents to regulators.
WA's parliamentary inquiry into sexual harassment of female workers in the FIFO mining sector has recommended that the industry ensure there are "serious repercussions" for perpetrators, keep a blacklist of perpetrators to stop them simply moving to other sites and rebalance the proportion of direct and indirect hires to reduce risks.
A 20% pay cut imposed on a general manager while his employer shut its doors due to COVID-19 restrictions breached his contract and did not qualify as a JobKeeper-enabling direction, WA's IRC has held.
