Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has again foreshadowed that a return to individual agreements and a small business unfair dismissal exemption will be the Coalition's main IR changes if it wins the next federal election.
The ACTU has called for the Federal Government's paid parental leave bill - introduced into parliament yesterday - to include a statutory object clearly stating that the new scheme is an addition to existing paid parental leave entitlements, while both the AiG and BCA say they don't expect employers will reduce existing arrangements.
Woolworths is seeking FWA approval of its first nationwide enterprise agreement - one of Australia's biggest – which will boost employees' wages by about 3.5% a year and entitle 20-year-old workers to full adult rates.
Unions for the first time in 20 years have increased the proportion of workers who are members, with density reaching 19.7% in the 12 months to August last year and the number of union members rising for the second year in a row, by 82,200 to 1,835,100.
ASU welcomes "world first" bargaining win at IBM; CFMEU winds up company to secure entitlements; FWA orders Target to bargain with head office employees; and Wage growth to return to 4% in 2011-12: Treasury
FWA has taken a tough line on ensuring employers meet pre-approval requirements for their new agreements, rejecting a deal covering some 85 NSW worksites because the company failed to give a handful of employees enough time to consider it - including one on maternity leave, which the tribunal said was "potentially discriminatory".
Vale Jeff Shaw; FWA's Whelan moving to federal magistracy; Government suspends some temporary skilled migration visas; and FWA member bemoans agreement applications filled out like "notes on back of beer coaster".
A major security company that provided an incomplete copy of its proposed enterprise agreement to employees and made a critical error in the notice informing them when the ballot closed has failed to have its enterprise agreement approved.
A Fair Work Australia full bench has upheld a finding that Telstra was justified in sacking an employee for providing the CEPU with confidential documents revealing its non-union bargaining strategy and its success in individualising its employment arrangements and de-unionising its workforce.
