Victorian Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield has called on the Coalition to abandon its commitment to respect Labor's mandate on IR, arguing it was the Opposition's job to "frustrate bad policy".
Julian Burnside QC, who represented the MUA in the union's landmark battle with Patrick Stevedores to have the company's sacked waterfront workers reinstated, was among those recognised in yesterday's Australia Day awards.
The Australian Mines and Metals Association has told a Senate inquiry into the Fair Work Bill today there is already evidence of demarcation rumblings between unions and has outlined measures it believes could limit their effects on employers.
DEEWR management have put an offer on the table for a new union collective agreement that would deliver annual pay rises above 5% to almost all of its 6,500 employees.
The AIRC award modernisation full bench today published the second round of draft modern awards - bringing about substantial rationalisation in construction, finance, manufacturing and call centres - and called for submissions on how to deal with transitional provisions and Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard's amendments to the award modernisation request.
Monash IR academics call for greater dispute prevention role for FWA; Don't let AMWU misrepresentations influence Fair Work Bill, says Cochlear; NUW state branches accuse national union of asset "smash and grab"; Right to request too weak, says family expert; Right of entry provisions breach ALP IR mandate, says Minerals Council; Business Council seeking greater enterprise focus; Recruitment peak body says Fair Work agreements system not suited to on-hire work; and Sex workers seek to be covered by modern award safety net.
Airline operations across Australia could be disrupted by industrial action as soon as next month after air traffic controllers' union Civil Air this week won AIRC orders for a strike ballot of its members.
About 60,000 NSW public school and TAFE teachers will receive a 4.4% pay rise backdated to January 1 and 3.8% increases in January 2010 and 2011, after the NSW Teachers Federation and the State Government accepted a NSW IRC recommendation to resolve their long-running dispute.
Some 3,000 Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs employees have won improved parental leave entitlements and a 14.1% pay rise over three years under a new union collective agreement.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull have found themselves in uncommon agreement on the need for unions and workers to help avoid job losses by exercising restraint during the economic downturn.
