An effective national IR system will be developed before the end of the Rudd Government's three-year term, and possibly within its first half, NSW IR Minister John Della Bosca said today.
In her first speech after today becoming Deputy Prime Minister and Workplace Relations Minister, Julia Gillard said she wanted to be known as the "Minister for Productivity" and also extended an olive branch to the employer organisations that attacked Labor's IR policy before the election.
An employer who indirectly discriminated against an injured mechanic by dismissing him when he was on indefinite sick leave has been ordered to pay him $4,418 in compensation.
Gillard confirms transitional bill to go to Cabinet before Christmas; Long-serving HR Nicholls president to step down; and Swings to Labor higher in seats with Rights at Work campaigns, say unions.
The push by some employers, particularly Telstra, to roll-out new AWAs has many unions calling for the ALP to make retrospective its transitional legislation banning new individual contracts. Others have different priorities. Workplace Express today asked union leaders what the ALP victory meant for their members.
A sacked union delegate who staged a year-long picket of Botany Cranes in Sydney has been reinstated for one day as part of a confidential settlement following Labor's federal election victory.
New Liberal leader Dr Brendan Nelson and his deputy Julie Bishop - who will also be Shadow IR Minister - have signalled that they are not prepared to accept the ALP has a mandate to roll back Work Choices, particularly its unfair dismissal exemption, while the woman Bishop will be facing across the floor of Parliament on IR - Julia Gillard - will now also be in charge of implementing Labor's education revolution.
Bankwest and two local councils have joined the NAB and St George Bank in agreeing to union proposals to conduct pay equity audits after the NAB's first such study showed its women employees on average earned 63% of male earnings, it was revealed today.
The ABCC underspent its budget by $10m in 2006-07, while it paid $140,000 for the controversial Econtech report, according to its annual report, released yesterday, more than two months after it was handed to Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey.
