The Senate has agreed to a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's working visa regime, just a week after the Coalition announced extensive changes to the 457 temporary skilled program following a panel review.
The head of Networks NSW, which owns the power "poles and wires" entities that are to be privatised if the Coalition wins Saturday's NSW election, is pushing for FWC approval of agreements to be conditional on them undergoing an objective "productivity test" and is backing calls for the creation of a separate FWC appeals jurisdiction.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is backing a template deal struck by the shop union and a state employer peak group that boosts shop assistants' base pay rates while reducing or removing weekend penalty rates.
The Fair Work Commission has granted a Coles store manager an extension of time to file his unfair dismissal claim after finding that he was misled into believing that the supermarket giant was investigating the termination of his employment.
The CFMEU construction and general division's "cavalier attitude" to court orders has cost it another $125,000, with the Federal Court finding it in contempt of undertakings not to block access to a Victorian wind farm project last year.
A tribunal has found an employee's severe morning sickness is a "disability" but has rejected the bulk of her discrimination claims, including that her employer failed to make reasonable changes to her hours and conditions.
A chief executive has been awarded more than $3m after a court found that his employer's redundancy policy was incorporated into his contract of employment, but his off-sider will take home nothing after failing to prove that the policy became part of his contract as part of a "course of dealings".
Dismissed employees who are re-engaged as independent contractors often need longer than the 21-day statutory limit on unfair sacking claims to be sure their employer has engaged in sham contracting, according to the AWU.
