An employer has won a $164,000 payout from a recruitment company that failed to properly check the references of a sales manager who subsequently charged $44,000 of personal expenses to his corporate credit card and turned out to be an undischarged bankrupt.
The ACTU believes the custodianship of unions and employer groups over awards should be maintained, but severing the link between award respondency and representation rights could help the award modernisation process, according to senior industrial officer Cath Bowtell.
AIRC Vice President Graeme Watson has signalled that the consultation regime for award modernisation could be restructured, after the process for the first round of modern awards had "not been as useful as it might have been."
Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard appears to have successfully walked the IR tightrope with her announcement this afternoon that her substantive bill will extend limited arbitration into three new areas. The ACTU has welcomed the move as giving workers added protection, while her commitment that parties won't have to sign concessions during good faith bargaining plus the high threshold for the "significant harm" test have helped soften employer opposition, with the AHA an exception.
The Federal Government has responded favourably to AIRC commissioner Barbara Deegan's recommendation that minimum salary levels be abolished in favour of market rates for 457 visa workers earning less than $100,000; but said her call to levy sponsors to pay for services such as Medicare was contrary to ALP policy.
Fair Work Australia will be able to arbitrate a settlement when parties commit serious breaches of good faith bargaining orders, Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard will announce this afternoon.
A small business employer has been fined $20,000 and ordered to backpay $12,500, after refusing to pay annual leave loading in the mistaken belief that it had been abolished.
The NSW IRC has rejected an unfair dismissal claim by a NSW Parliament House security guard after finding he was in the members bar watching television when intruders entered the building.
The Federal Government has used the release of data on 1,000 AWAs to put pressure on the Opposition in the lead up to the introduction of its substantive IR bill, which Caucus members were today briefed on by Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard.
Take Canberra out of labour market regulation game, urges HRN's Evans; ABCC investigating North West Shelf industrial action as more workers face injunction; AHRC releases updated anti-harassment publication; Average weekly earnings up by 4.5% a year; ABC Learning 25% market share a “problem”: Rudd; and Complaints over text messages in CFMEU WA election
