Women began working in production roles in Queensland coal mines in the late '70s "as a public relations exercise rather than a genuine willingness to embrace equal opportunity", according to a new university study. But by last year they accounted for 6.3% of the industry's blue-collar workers, until their predominantly casual and contractor status meant they were first to go when the Global Financial Crisis hit.
The CEPU believes Tuesday's FWA full bench decision on planned Telstra industrial action was behind the tribunal last night ordering it to call off its pre-Christmas Australia Post strikes.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott yesterday publicly embraced his non-Conservative roots, saying his maternal grandfather was a "lifelong unionist", and that he himself once moved a strike resolution while working as a journalist at The Bulletin.
The NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal has rejected an employee's claim that the coal mining company he worked for discriminated against him by failing to provide acceptable alternative duties after he was injured while skiing.
New appointments to Fair Work Australia redress a pro-employer imbalance created by the Howard government, two leading labour law academics say, while Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has challenged the Coalition to explain why it appointed only one woman to the tribunal during its 11 years in power.
Hours worked across the economy continued to fall in the September quarter, while productivity and unit labour costs grew strongly, according to the ABS.
A CEPU notification to Telstra that its members across the country planned "an unlimited number of indefinite stoppages" failed to comply with the new Act, a Fair Work Australia full bench has ruled.
Shadow IR Minister Senator Eric Abetz has slammed the Rudd Government's new appointments to Fair Work Australia as "blatant pandering to their union mates", while AMMA says Labor has continued the tradition of making partisan appointments to the tribunal.
The Federal Government has today announced its first appointments to Fair Work Australia, with five of the six new commissioners having recent or past union backgrounds.
