AWU national secretary Paul Howes today maintained a disciplined union movement was ready to again fight the Coalition; labelled Opposition Leader Tony Abbott the Liberal Party's Mark Latham; accused "rogue agrarian capitalists" of getting "shady local fellows" to press-gang workers into cheap service; and proposed a scheme to divert foreign investment into local infrastructure.
Fair Work Australia has reinstated a long-serving Norske Skog employee, after ruling it was harsh to sack him for repeatedly failing to wear safety glasses and finding it would have been a "disaster" for the man and his family if he lost his job.
The Coalition will go to the next election campaigning for an unfair dismissal threshold "substantially" lower than the Work Choices' level of 100 employees and a no-disadvantage test that can't be undercut by individual agreements, according to Shadow Workplace Relations Minister Senator Eric Abetz.
Unions have successfully opposed a CSIRO bid to have workers transferring from a previously outsourced deep space communications facility brought under its organisation-wide enterprise agreement, in Fair Work Australia's first decision in a contested transfer of business matter under the new laws.
The meatworkers' union has today asked a FWA appeal bench to quickly decide its bid for a scope order providing for it to bargain for a standalone agreement for Woolworths' meat departments, before the company puts to an employee ballot a single national agreement covering all supermarket employees.
Fair Work Australia has ordered Deakin University to apologise to a former employee and pay her $30,000 over a workplace restructure and disciplinary action that breached its enterprise agreement.
Fair Work Australia has rejected the coal mining union's bid for a good faith bargaining order to stop Xstrata subsidiary Tahmoor Coal from putting a proposed enterprise agreement to an employee ballot.
Unions or employers can use emotive language or put the best possible spin on information when communicating with employees during bargaining without breaching good faith requirements, Fair Work Australia has found.
High Court refuses leave to appeal "mutual trust and confidence" case; CEPU condemns Australia Post injury management; and Federal Court fines CFMEU $45,000
