Qantas and its licenced aircraft maintenance engineers reached in-principle agreement last night, bringing to an end the industrial action that has seriously disrupted flight schedules, while the airline has today announced it will cut about 1,500 jobs in response to rising fuel prices.
Qantas and long-haul pilots reach accord; Gillard on Telstra bargaining; Spicer Axle workers' pay rises tied to CPI; and 4% pay rise for paint workers.
Telstra has announced today that after ACTU intervention stymied negotiations to replace its main enterprise agreement, it is ending bargaining with unions and will now explore unspecified alternative options.
In a long-running test case by the ABCC, the Federal Court has imposed $12,000 in extra fines against the CFMEU and one of its organisers for making false statements about the obligation of four plasterers to join the union at a Wollongong building site in NSW in 2004.
The ACTU is calling on the Federal Government to strengthen its planned benchmarks for businesses receiving compensation under its Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme announced today.
The Rudd Government, by "modernising" awards, is reducing the safety net and explicitly accepting the Work Choices architecture that was designed to "trash" awards, according to Greens' IR spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert.
The MEAA will seek authorisation from members at Fairfax Media to initiate a bargaining period, as it prepares for possible industrial action after reaching a bargaining stalemate over the company's plan to require about 300 senior journalists and photographers to individually bargain for their pay.
Unions are increasing pressure on the Rudd government to strengthen and bring forward controversial elements of its substantive IR legislation, focussing on the removal of the ABCC's coercive powers, the establishment of new collective bargaining rights and the restoration of unfair dismissal protections.
Some 500 journalists employed by about 200 country newspapers across Australia will be entitled to six weeks paid maternity leave, under an agreement variation and extension approved by the AIRC yesterday. Media unions are also seeking increases in paid parental leave in bargaining with the Special Broadcasting Service.
The Federal Court has begun a trial of the ABCC's long-running case against the CFMEU and its organiser Bob Mates for alleged breaches of the BCII Act involving a picket at a Melbourne building site in 2006.
