A Fair Work Commissioner has approved a deal allowing annual and personal leave to be rolled into hourly rates, holding that a tribunal full bench ruling was the relevant authority - despite some other Commission members disagreeing.
Senator Eric Abetz will be responsible for workplace relations in Tony Abbott's new Coalition government, but for the first time in many years the portfolio will not have "workplace relations" or "IR" in its title.
Stressing the importance of workplace health and safety protections, the Federal Court has imposed heavy fines on cardboard giant Visy Packaging for taking adverse action against a union representative who sidelined two defective forklifts and resisted the company's attempts to return them to service without adequate modifications.
Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard maintains that Labor and the unions "profoundly" won the workplace relations battle and the party now has a "hold over our national consensus" on the issue, in the same way it does with Medicare.
The ACTU and ANMF have criticised the Coalition's plans to redirect up to $1.5 billion committed by the Labor Government to fund wage increases for some 350,000 aged care and child care workers.
Outgoing Labor Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has confirmed this afternoon that he is a candidate for the Opposition leadership, indicating that he is running because he believes the ALP can win the next federal election.
Four senior NSW IRC judges - including the President, Justice Roger Boland - will retire early next year and won't be replaced, in what the Opposition, Greens and unions maintain is a further attack on the independent umpire by the O'Farrell Government.
