With the FWC's new bullying jurisdiction to commence operation in less than five months, Master Builders Australia claims there are practical difficulties with the regime, including the potential for "go away" money, confusion arising from multiple actions, and the absence of a pre-screening process.
More than 450 meat industry labour hire workers, including refugees holding humanitarian visas, will have access to the modern award safety net after the Fair Work Commission terminated an agreement made under the Workplace Relations Act and which passed its nominal expiry date more than three years ago.
A Fair Work Commission member has set out a list of factors that should guide consent wage arbitrations, in awarding 65 manufacturing workers in the troubled automotive industry a 3.5% wage increase as the first instalment in a proposed three-year deal.
In another case involving a complicated chain of contractors engaged in shopping trolley collection, a Fair Work Ombudsman prosecution in the Federal Circuit Court will go ahead after a failed bid by a company and its director to argue that they were not accessories to a subcontractor's underpayments.
A campaign to coerce national builder Watpac to sign up to a union agreement and only engage sub-contractors who were also signatories has cost the CFMEU $99,000 and the CEPU $20,000 after the Federal Court this morning approved fines agreed by the unions with the Fair Work Building inspectorate.
Grocon has this afternoon asked the Victorian Supreme Court to hit the CFMEU with a record $5 million fine for defying orders to lift its high-profile Melbourne CBD blockade of the Myer Emporium in August last year.
The Coalition's paid parental scheme won't start until July 1, 2015, will retain Labor's "work test", will prevent public sector employees double-dipping, and will cost $5.5 billion annually – more than twice what its 1.5% levy on business will raise, it revealed yesterday.
CFMEU fighting greenfields deal at coal mine; Miners remain highest paid; WA public service wages cap confirmed while nurses' pay increases; and Shorten promises post-election APS outsourcing review.
