Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard says she is prepared to meet with non-government senators opposed to key planks of her construction industry legislation, but she repeated today - following the release of the Senate committee report on the bill in which the Coalition recommends voting against it - that the Government has a mandate for change.
Toyota and Ford back a bid by car parts manufacturer Autoliv to stop action threatening the supply of critical components; Mineworkers at a Hunter Valley coal mine to strike in a bid to win a new agreement that reinstates clauses barred under Work Choices; and NSW public sector unions release a report on options for bolstering the NSW IRC.
The Federal Government's construction industry IR bill is facing a difficult passage through the Senate, with Family First's Senator Steve Fielding planning to introduce five amendments that go to the core of the planned changes.
Hard bargaining by unions or employers, including refusing to budge on important issues, is consistent with genuinely trying to reach agreement, Fair Work Australia has found, while in two separate decisions it has made contradictory rulings on identical ballot questions.
The Rudd Government has secured the passage of its bill to establish a new national OHS and workers compensation body - ahead of an OHS meeting tomorrow with unions and Labor state ministers - after the Coalition yesterday gave up on the amendments it and all other non-government senators had sought.
Virgin Blue will have to contend with a new enterprise-based union, after Fair Work Australia yesterday approved the registration of a new independent organisation to represent the airline's pilots.
The protected action ballot at Australia Post will not go ahead tomorrow, after Fair Work Australia yesterday - in a ruling the CEPU said was "bitterly disappointing" - found the union was not genuinely trying to reach agreement.
Ground staff employed by international airlines could be up to $300 a week worse off under the AIRC's proposed modern award for the sector, according to the ASU, which now says it is considering a legal challenge to Friday's award modernisation decision.
The Federal Government has set up a system of workplace and site-based pay rates for 457 visa workers, rather than the market-based regime it claims to be implementing, according to CFMEU national secretary John Sutton.
