Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital has been ordered to reinstate a pathology courier it sacked after an internal investigation wrongly accused her of assaulting a fellow employee during a rostering dispute, the AIRC has decided.
Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has played down the likelihood of AWAs continuing indefinitely beyond their expiry date because their terms would become outdated and it would be impossible to re-negotiate new ones under the Government's transition bill.
The Federal Court on Tuesday will decide whether to maintain an injunction against alleged unlawful industrial action by up to 180 workers on an offshore barge who are building a pipeline for a massive $1.5 billion Woodside resources project in WA's north-west. Unions maintain the stoppage is lawful, as it was a response to reasonable OHS concerns.
In a development that has major implications for established union coverage, the BLF in Queensland has applied under the Work Choices transitional rules to register as a federal organisation. But, as will be the case with other state unions and employer groups, doing so is likely to extend nationwide its coverage of the workers it represents.
The Rudd Government's proposed common law contracts could be better for employers than AWAs, according to AMMA's Chris Platt, while the transitional IR legislation will not guarantee that no worker is worse off, University of Adelaide Law Professor Andrew Stewart said today.
Employers and unions yesterday cast doubt on the feasibility of the Rudd Government’s December 2009 deadline for modernising awards, as they appeared before a Senate inquiry into the transitional IR legislation. Meanwhile, the National Farmers Federation raised its concerns about the proposed award modernisation request requiring the AIRC rather than the parties to draft the modern awards, and will push its point further at the next NWRCC meeting in Melbourne next week.
There are no new AWAs or ITEAs, employees determine the type of collective agreement they want, the role of unions is recognised and agencies have to bargain genuinely, under the new bargaining guidelines for the public sector.
A full bench of the Federal Court has upheld in part the ABCC's appeal against a finding last year in which it failed to establish a coercion in agreement-making claim against the CFMEU (construction division), but was successful in its prosecution for freedom of association breaches.
Former Prime Minister John Howard, in his first public speech since his election defeat, has said it would be "a mistake" if the Rudd Government reversed the Coalition's IR reforms.
