The Fair Work Commission has commended BHP Coal's approach to disciplining a tanker driver whose unintentional overwatering of a road at its Peak Downs Mine caused a rollover that wrote off a $1.2m truck and injured a colleague.
The Fair Work Commission has granted Patrick Stevedores' Port Botany workers access to how they scored when assessed to fill the reduced number of positions at the terminal post-automation, while at the same time venting frustration at the warring parties and withdrawing from private arbitration.
In separate out-of-time rulings, the Fair Work Commission has rejected a sacked employee's challenge to when his dismissal took effect, but given another employee the benefit of the doubt on the "unreliability" of the tribunal's e-filing system.
With Employment Minister Eric Abetz signalling he intends to cold-call, rather than advertise, to fill Fair Work Commission vacancies, the AMMA is today arguing it is people with employer backgrounds whose numbers he should be dialling.
A Sydney law firm has told the Productivity Commission the Fair Work Act should be amended to make restraint of trade clauses in employment contracts void, arguing that they are used by employers as a "blunt instrument" to stifle competition.
Senior FWC members will head up enterprise bargaining and dispute resolution workshops in a pilot to kick off in Sydney next month, as part of the tribunal's broader strategy to encourage more productive workplaces.
The Abbott Government will ease the gender reporting requirements on employers, in a move that it claims will cut compliance costs by more than a third.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz's own department looks next in line to take industrial action in the deadlocked public sector bargaining round - and it will include disrupting the information flow to his office.
