Unions NSW assistant secretary Mark Lennon looks likely to replace incumbent John Robertson, who will take the State Upper House seat vacated by former Treasurer Michael Costa.
Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has declined to comment on speculation that a two year cut-off for old workplace agreements has been included in the Government's draft substantive IR legislation.
Rio train drivers going out for 24 hours-plus; AIRC rejects implied statutory duty to bargain in good faith; Court delays NUW referendum; Global inequality getting worse, says ILO; Moses takes silk; Thistlethwaite primed for top NSW ALP job; DEEWR has no guidelines for purchasing carbon offsets; Portfolio “a dream come true”, says Gillard; and Government to link bank risk profile to executive remuneration.
Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has accused the Opposition of "playing politics" after it helped to pass Senate amendments designed to secure greater representation for the ACTU and ACCI on the Government's proposed federal OHS agency, Safe Work Australia.
A full bench of the Federal Court has allowed an appeal by a motel penalised $19,000 for underpaying an employee it made redundant, while a Darwin company that refused to back pay three teenage fast food workers less than $3,000 has been fined $45,000.
The AIRC's modern retail award exposure draft would result in significantly higher wage costs for the nation's retailers, with some facing a spike in their wages bill of up to 50%, retail employer groups say.
The AMMA maintains that pressure from unions and from within the ALP to scrap the ABCC is damaging investment confidence during a period of global turmoil, and has called on the Federal Government to confirm the construction watchdog will remain in force until January 31, 2010. It also wants the ALP to pre-empt the Wilcox inquiry and announce that the ABCC's existing powers and functions will be incorporated into the specialist division of Fair Work Australia for a minimum of five years.
The huge task of award modernisation and pending retirements of members threaten to further stretch the AIRC's already limited resources, according to its 2007-08 annual report, released today.
It is virtually impossible to bargain in good faith without a meaningful remedy, and the Rudd Government should borrow from Western Australia's labour laws that allow the State's IRC to make arbitrated enterprise orders, Professor Ron McCallum has argued in the AIER's new magazine launched today in Canberra.
