While Shadow IR Minister Michael Keenan yesterday nominated right of entry, low-paid bargaining, compulsory arbitration, transmission of business, and bargaining fees as the areas where the Coalition was likely to seek Senate amendments to the Government's Fair Work Bill, hardline Opposition members have warned they will vote against the legislation despite their Leader's "Work Choices is dead" pronouncement.
WA IRC launches free mediation service; Hefty fines for employers under new Victorian wage protection laws; Execs doubt paid maternity leave will increase women in workforce; 5000 Telstra employees register interest in non-union agreement; Fewer public servants doing more work to pay for Rudd's efficiency dividend; McCallum elected to UN Committee; TWU's Sheldon to quit NSW secretary job; and EOWA releases its 2007-08 annual report
The Fair Work Bill's agreement rules radically depart from 15 years of history, with changes such as removing the distinction between union and non-union agreements. But in league with the good faith bargaining provisions, the agreement rules give unions an opportunity to rebuild, particularly in partly-unionised workplaces, according to the national legal officer for the CFMEU (mining and energy division).
The NTEU has won an order for a protected action ballot at Victoria University after the AIRC accepted it was not pursuing prohibited content in negotiations.
The Federal Court has found that Melbourne electrical parts manufacturer Heinemann Electric Pty Ltd underpaid 35 workers when it docked them an entire day's pay on each of five days they held overtime bans in mid-2006.
The DEEWR will hold a public briefing on the Federal Government's Fair Work Bill 2008 on December 11, ahead of a two-week Senate inquiry conducting hearings around the country in the last week of January and mid-February.
The Fair Work Bill's better off overall test lifts the bar on the current no disadvantage test and is likely to result in better outcomes for employees, a leading IR practitioner says.
The Commonwealth DPP has advised the ABCC that it withdrew its charge against the CFMEU's Noel Washington because the construction watchdog's original interview that the union official allegedly refused to attend was adjourned.
The Fair Work Bill's severing of the link between IR tribunal members' pay and that of Federal Court judges, and the removal of judges' pension entitlements for presidential members, will make it harder to attract talented lawyers to the new institution, according to former senior AIRC member, Paul Munro, while Monash University's Anthony Forsyth says FWA replaces Work Choices' failed private ADR model of dispute resolution with a UK-inspired focus on mediation and prevention.
