Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has dismissed as "dithering" the Coalition's AWA back-down today, saying the fact that it continued to delay the Senate inquiry process meant it was still hanging on to Work Choices.
A Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal decision to exempt an enterprise agreement from parts of the State's Equal Opportunity Act might be without jurisdiction because certified agreements prevail over State discrimination laws, as well as the federal Age Discrimination Act, according to a specialist workplace lawyer.
HR salaries will grow substantially this year in Melbourne and Brisbane, but won't increase for top level IR/ER managers in the northern capital, according to recruitment company Robert Walters.
Hockey says Cabinet unaware of Work Choices' implications, but Gillard and Burrow don't buy it; Wage restraint needed to fight inflation, says Gillard; WO investigating claims AWAs to undercut collective agreement; Skills crisis hits Melbourne ambulance service, says union; Williams speaking in Canberra this week; Formal farewell for Lance Wright this week; New Stewart guide to employment law; and $8,000 in back pay for young workers.
The Rudd Government has given the Productivity Commission a year to report on options for paid parental leave schemes, including their economic impact on small and medium businesses.
The AIRC has briefly suspended a bargaining period after finding the AMWU was not genuinely trying to reach agreement by introducing new claims and not allowing the employer sufficient time to consider them.
Apple and Harcourt to help Bracks in car industry inquiry; Senate committees change hands; Mental As Anything drummer wins unfair contracts case; UK Unions push workers to only work their paid hours; Scientists strike at Victorian Hospitals; NSW firefighters start work bans; and Labor introduces $31b personal tax cut bill.
The Federal Court has fined a Victorian company $60,000 and ordered it to pay a former employee more than $6,000 after it transferred then suspended her when she took her underpayment complaint to the OWS and to court.
Former ACTU secretary Greg Combet has declined to back calls (such as by AWU national secretary Paul Howes) for Labor's tax cuts to be partially delivered as superannuation, in his first speech as a member of the federal parliament.
