Prominent labour lawyer Josh Bornstein has drawn on his own experience as an employing partner at Maurice Blackburn to argue that IR laws are neither a driver of, nor an impediment to, productivity improvement.
The Fair Work Commission has found that restricting to three a year the number of statutory declarations employees could rely on as proof of illness breached the NES, but has otherwise dismissed the CFMEU's objections to a mining company's stricter new attendance policy.
A magistrate rather than a jury will hear the charges against former HSU national secretary Craig Thomson for alleged misappropriation of $26,000 in union funds.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has rejected separate bids to change the transitional provisions in four modern awards - in the restaurant, pastoral and childcare sectors.
In a decision that demonstrates the breadth of an enterprise agreement introduction of change clause, the Fair Work Commission has ruled that Melbourne's metropolitan firefighters should have been consulted over the introduction of a one-hour daily limit on personal internet use.
FWC releases draft 2014 minimum wage review timetable, research submissions due August; FWC refuses to order review of AEC ballot; Victorian health care centres win right to bargain collectively; and ACTU wants tougher bullying code of practice plus regulation.
A third bid by United Voice to end a lockout of MSS security guards at Perth Airport has failed, with the Fair Work Commission finding it was not yet causing the employees significant economic harm and rejecting the union's argument that the bargaining dispute would not be resolved in the foreseeable future.
Former Australian cricket coach Mickey Arthur has lodged a general protections claim with the Fair Work Commission after his unceremonious dumping in the lead-up to the current Ashes tour of England.
In two separate applications for protected action ballot orders, senior members of the Fair Work Commission have rejected employer arguments that the applicant union had not been genuinely seeking an agreement – but one of the unions says the Fair Work Act needs to be amended to speed up the approval process.
The federal government has attacked the Opposition's "replacement wage" approach to paid parental leave, maintaining it is inequitable and based on European-style insurance schemes unsuitable for Australia.
