NSW power workers have given notice of staggered four-hour strikes at two major "poles and wires" networks as it seeks to overcome employer objections that such stoppages will raise unacceptable public safety risks.
The Federal Government has adopted the vast bulk of changes proposed by its 457 visa program review panel, but will retain for now the ALP's labour market testing laws, despite a recommendation to scrap them.
The head of the Fair Work Commission's anti-bullying panel has highlighted the key cases in the new jurisdiction's first year, and revealed that many employers are failing to follow their own internal procedures when dealing with bullying complaints.
A Fair Work Commissioner has criticised a union for unreasonably delaying the withdrawal of a notice flagging a stopwork meeting, but says the Fair Work Act does not allow him to order it to pay the costs of an employer that was forced to lodge an application to stop the industrial action.
Employers are likely to rely more heavily on zero tolerance drug and alcohol policies to discipline or dismiss employees, even when there is no evidence of impairment, after an important full Federal Court ruling yesterday.
The ACTU will argue for the re-introduction of compulsory arbitration in its delayed submission to the Productivity Commission's inquiry into the Fair Work laws.
The AiG has called for sweeping changes to the Fair Work laws, including stronger management rights for employers, penalties for lawyers who encourage speculative dismissal or general protections claims, the return of individual contracts, and cashing-out of long service leave.
