The head of the Productivity Commission has called for "serious reflection on productivity" at the workplace level and across governments, arguing Australia will otherwise experience slower than expected income growth.
AWU national secretary Paul Howes has called a media conference today to announce that he will not put his hand up for the NSW Senate vacancy expected to be created by Senator Bob Carr's departure from his brief stint in federal parliament.
The President of the Fair Work Commission has refused a bid by Victorian restaurant and catering employers to have the Federal Court clear up its disagreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman over the transitional penalty and loading provisions in the industry modern award, dubbing it a "collateral attack" on a full bench decision of his tribunal.
In a shake-up of public sector department heads, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appointed Renee Leon as the new secretary of the Department of Employment, the portfolio under which workplace relations falls.
The Business Council of Australia has told the Productivity Commission's labour mobility inquiry that the requirement on employers to undertake labour market testing before employing workers on 457 visas should be dropped, despite the study's terms of reference making it clear that it is restricted to movements within Australia.
QCAT has refused an Xstrata subsidiary's request for legal representation at an early compulsory conference for a "straightforward" case involving a mineworker who claims he suffered age discrimination and victimisation.
The Federal Circuit Court has declared that an employer's right to make "long-term" recruitment decisions isn't necessarily incompatible with anti-discrimination laws, in ruling that a council wasn't age-biased in demoting a senior accountant and replacing him with an underqualified junior.
Bucking the trend of previous court and tribunal decisions, the Fair Work Commission has found that a Melbourne taxi driver who worked for the same cab owner for 16 years was an employee - not a bailee or an independent contractor - and therefore entitled to pursue an unfair dismissal case after the termination of his engagement.
Requiring a permanent employee to supply medical evidence she was fit to return to work before signing a new contract could amount to adverse action, but a Muslim educational academy did not do so for a prohibited reason, the Federal Circuit Court has found.
