Accommodation/strike pay appeal before single judge; Melbourne council workers to vote on pay freeze deal; and WA retail sector healthy, penalty rates should stay.
Labor and Green senators on the committee inquiring into the Federal Government's construction industry IR bill have recommended six changes - five of them to the new coercive powers safeguards - while Opposition senators says the bill should be opposed "at every step".
The High Court has today found that the SA Education Minister didn't have the power under a former section of the State's Education Act to appoint thousands of temporary teachers, in a ruling that has implications for their long service leave entitlements.
Minister responds to Senator Abetz criticism of FWA appointments; High Court to deliver AEU SA decision tomorrow; Bench refuses union's costs bid in dismissal appeal; and IR manager not dismissed because of bullying complaints.
The Federal Magistrates Court has found News Ltd subsidiary Queensland Newspapers summarily dismissed a printer because of repeated misbehaviour rather than his exercising of workplace rights.
Employers would be required to give three days' notice of lockouts; deliberate Qantas-style groundings/lockouts would not trigger termination of protected industrial action; and job security and workloads would be declared as matters pertaining, under a private member's bill introduced to Parliament by Greens MP and IR spokesperson Adam Bandt.
The Federal Opposition has made an extraordinary attack on Fair Work Australia and its new president, saying it "will watch very closely" the appointment of Justice Iain Ross to the role and that it remains to be seen whether he can rehabilitate the tribunal's "tarnished image".
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten this morning praised outgoing Fair Work Australia President, Justice Geoffrey Giudice, for his "wise detachment" and proving the naysayers wrong by succeeding in modernising awards, at a farewell ceremonial sitting in Melbourne.
