An AIRC full bench has today effectively flowed-on the AFPC's $21.66-a-week pay rise to workers on transitional awards, rounding the amount up to $21.70.
New senators sworn in; John Hogg new Senate president; First sign of ALP unrest, says Nelson; Unions NSW takes paid maternity leave campaign to Canberra; Fairfax sheds jobs; and Make tomorrow equal pay day, says EOWA.
In an important decision on random drug testing, the AIRC has determined that Shell should use oral fluid testing rather than urine sampling - which invades employees' privacy more - at its Clyde Refinery and Gore Bay terminal in NSW.
Building unions have today intensified their campaign against the Federal Government’s decision to retain the ABCC and the BCII Act until 2010, launching a national television advertisement and inviting ALP members and senators to a briefing in Canberra on the reach of the building laws.
The Federal Government will have to compromise on its plan for lawyer-free unfair dismissal conferences, while key Forward With Fairness policy questions still unanswered include how the safety net will be adjusted and how the Fair Work Australia one-stop shop will work, according to University of Adelaide's Professor Andrew Stewart.
Workplace Ombudsman Nick Wilson has outlined measures that could improve his ability to enforce compliance by employers in a speech to the NT IR Society in Darwin.
In what is thought to be the first substantive judgment under the Independent Contractors Act, the Federal Magistrates Court has today found that it was unfair for a principal to require that three independent contractor owner-drivers substantially upgrade the truck they were obliged to provide.
As the state IR ministers meet with Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard in Sydney today, the Queensland Government has made it clear that it will not decide until the middle of next year whether it will participate in the Rudd Government’s proposed national IR system and what form that participation will take.
Clayton Utz partner Graham Smith has today called on the Federal Government to abandon plans to set up Fair Work Australia, and instead retain the AIRC and beef-up its powers.
