Bargaining representatives will be able to apply to Fair Work Australia for orders to ensure protected action authorisations survive the July 1 cut-off under new Government amendments to the Fair Work transitional bill, while the Opposition and Greens will also pursue changes to the legislation.
The ACTU has vowed to continue to fight to end the use of coercive powers in the construction industry, despite Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard today securing Caucus support for her amending legislation that retains those powers, though with some safeguards.
Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has today won Caucus endorsement for her construction-specific IR legislation, and will tomorrow introduce into parliament a bill that retains coercive powers in the sector, though with the ability for them to be "turned off" on projects with good IR records.
The CFMEU's mining and energy division has launched innovative legal proceedings in the Federal Court in a bid to undo Rio Tinto's non-union industrial strategy in the Pilbara.
Virgin Blue has failed to win support from its cabin crew for a new agreement negotiated with employees that would have increased rostered hours, reconfigured pay scales and cut wages for new starters.
Queensland's peak employer body, CCIQ, has retrenched its most senior IR and HR advisors, less than a month before its members have to grapple with the challenges of the Fair Work Act.
Gillard confirms construction IR bill to be introduced this week; ANZ commits to collective bargaining; Clean start for pay celebrated on International Cleaners Day; and Bilateral agreement between Victoria and Commonwealth available
The NSW Supreme Court has rejected a real estate agency's bid to enforce restraints in a former employee's contract to prevent him working for a nearby competitor.
Executive pay in Australia has been driven by "leap-frogging" - an inflationary form of comparative wage justice that ordinary employees had to abandon as "old hat and dangerous" in the enterprise bargaining era, according to Griffith University's Professor David Peetz. He also says the Fair Work Act's legal minimum is a "useful benchmark" when setting executives' termination payouts.
Just 5% (or less than 600,000) of Australia's 10.65 million workers have been placed in jobs by recruitment or labour hire companies, according to new ABS data that also reveals there are almost a million independent contractors.
