The number of 457 primary visas granted in 2013-2014 was down almost a quarter on the previous year's total, while visa applications dropped by 40%, according to the latest Department of Immigration statistics.
The September 1 deadline the Department of Human Services set for certification of its new enterprise agreement is set to pass without employees being asked to vote on its draft offer.
Allowing a worker to switch from pursuing an unfair dismissal to a general protections claim after unsuccessful conciliation would allow him "two bites of the cherry", the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
Adding campaign material to company correspondence, answering customer inquiries with automated messages about bargaining, and placing slogans on company cars are all valid forms of industrial action, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon has told the Heydon Royal Commission that he has "no recollection" of asking his Victorian secretary Wayne Mader to contribute $20,000 from a state-based fighting fund to support the incumbent leader of the ETU in NSW.
A production manager who "perpetrated a fraud on his employer of a most egregious kind" is facing a compensation bill of more than $1m, including a rare award of exemplary damages, following a court ruling.
A fly-in, fly-out worker who made bullying and intimidation complaints but then refused to comply with his employer's instructions or grievance process has lost his unfair dismissal claim.
A new report from a major employment law firm predicts that the Senate will pass the Abbott Government's Fair Work Act and building industry amendments, suggests the next reforms will be limits on industrial action and productivity requirements for enterprise agreements, and highlights the lower than expected activity in the FWC's anti-bullying jurisdiction.
Glencore Xstrata has won conditional approval for the enterprise agreement it struck with 21 non-union workers it hired when it reopened what had been its unionised Collinsville coal mine in Central Queensland earlier this year.
The Heydon Royal Commission has heard that a campaign fund associated with the TWU's national office and NSW branch contributed up to $200,000 to a group who ousted the leadership of the Queensland branch in 2010, and a further $120,000 to HSU and Flight Attendants Association election candidates two years later.
