Rio train driver ballot application withdrawn; No nasty surprises in substantive legislation, FWA not the IR club, says Gillard; AWU celebrates 100 years of the Federated Ironworkers Association; and Huge membership rise in west, says construction union.
It would be "incomprehensible" to jettison the NSW IR system unless there was a better one to replace it - and no credible commentator had suggested there was, according to the President of the NSW IRC, Justice Roger Boland.
In a landmark decision for local government, the Federal Court has found that a Queensland council is not and cannot be a constitutional corporation, putting it out of reach of federal IR laws based on the constitution's corporations power.
A timber worker told to choose between his job and his daughter has won an apology plus almost $40,000 compensation from his employer, after he was denied leave at short notice to take his sick four-year-old to hospital with what turned out to be a life-threatening illness.
The 81,000 award-covered workers in South Australia have won a $24.50 weekly pay rise from October 1, after the SA IRC handed down its State Wage Case decision today.
Rio Tinto train drivers could disrupt deliveries of iron ore to ports for export from early next month, if they vote in support of a pre-strike ballot being sought by the CFMEU's mining and energy division in the AIRC tomorrow in Perth.
A full bench of the AIRC has refused the ALAEA leave to appeal an earlier finding that Qantas had the right to cancel annual leave it had already approved for its licenced aircraft engineers - which the airline did at the height of the parties' bargaining dispute earlier this year.
Some 37,000 Western Australian public sector employees will receive a pay increase of at least 4.05% a year and enhanced work/life entitlements - including 12 months unpaid grandparental leave - under an agreement voted up last week.
The Australian Institute of Employment Rights wants the Federal Government to legislate to ensure employees have the right to dignity of work in the wake of the Federal Court's ruling last week that Tristar did not act unlawfully by keeping on its workers, even though they had almost no meaningful work to do and it caused them significant harm.
