Wage negotiations at two of Australia's largest employers have taken opposite turns, with workers at Australia Post moving closer to industrial action just as Telstra signs off on a new friendly relations pact with unions.
The Federal Government will lift the annual income threshold to $180,000 for tax-free grants of up to $1000 in shares, in what it says are the final changes to the new tax regime for employee share schemes announced in the May Budget.
The LHMU has today made what are believed to be the first applications for majority support determinations under the Fair Work Act, in a bid to kickstart good faith bargaining with major hotel chains.
The Federal Court and Federal Magistrates Court have released new forms for practitioners to use when making applications to their new Fair Work divisions.
The AiG today used the historic inaugural sitting of Fair Work Australia to call on the new institution to avoid looking abroad for guidance on good faith bargaining, as employer and union representatives joined Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard in welcoming the occasion.
An application by the LHMU for a protected action ballot has failed after the AIRC found the union was not genuinely trying to reach an agreement with the employer, because it was trying to "keep its options open" to vary an existing agreement containing prohibited content.
New restaurants award now a matter for AIRC, says Gillard; Submissions sought on variation of modern clerks award; Obama nominates new head of labour mediation service; and AIRC's Ken Bacon retires.
Nineteen months after federal Labor won office and thirty-nine months since Work Choices became law, the bulk of the Rudd Government's new IR regime will take effect tomorrow.
The regulations for the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act and Fair Work (State Referral and Consequential and Other Amendments) Act have been published this afternoon and key sections of the Fair Work Act have been proclaimed, ahead of major parts of the legislation taking effect tomorrow.
The NTEU will seek to build momentum behind the enterprise bargaining round underway at universities, with a new wave of industrial action and a reduced national wage claim.
