After a six-week adjournment to allow talks between the parties in the SACS equal pay case, a Fair Work Australia full bench has today agreed to a last-minute request by Workplace Relations Minister Senator Chris Evans for a further adjournment to enable further negotiations.
Kelty returns to spotlight to examine the birth of bargaining; "Small mistake" costs company $1.3 million; More Qantas strife, but ALAEA suspends all action; Newspaper agreements voted up, while SBS journalists urged to again reject performance system; and legislation passes to establish NSW Public Service Commissioner.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has successfully prosecuted another sham contracting case, this one involving an abattoir owner which, the Federal Court found, moved employees from one internal company to another to avoid both past and future liability for employee entitlements.
The AiG's Peter Nolan, in a speech to the Victorian IR Society last week, warned employers against leaving it too late to take bargaining disputes to FWA, the ACTU's Tim Lyons sought to dispel "lies" about the Fair Work Act; ABC Commissioner Leigh Johns decried the failure of a key pattern deal to address productivity; and leading silk Herman Borenstein urged employers to think carefully before commencing legal action.
Caltex is taking the AWU to the Federal Court to stop what it says is "disruptive" unprotected industrial action at its Lytton refinery in Brisbane, despite the union claiming the action is based on a genuine safety dispute.
There were ten applicants on the shortlist for the three Fair Work Australia Commissioner appointments announced in September, Senate Estimates has heard, while DEEWR has also revealed that it has changed the way it recruits tribunal members.
The WA Government has reiterated that it won't be pursuing a Work Choices-style IR regime when it reforms the state system and has confirmed that it will be reducing the size of the state IR tribunal.
Commonwealth Ombudsman Allan Asher has declined a request by ABC Commissioner Leigh Johns to oversee the building watchdog's exercise of its compulsory examination powers under s52 of the BCII Act.
Fair Work Australia is on track to complete its investigations into the HSU by the end of the year but has not yet decided whether it will make its report public, a heated Senate Estimates session heard this morning.
