The Howard Government today described a leaked ACTU political strategy manual as a "dirty tricks" manual designed to install Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd as a prime minister who would be a puppet of the union movement.
The OWS prosecution of Tristar Suspension and Steering will proceed on July 16 after the Federal Court yesterday dismissed the company's attempt to have it struck out.
The WA IRC has today increased minimum award rates by a flat $24 a week, taking the State's minimum wage to $528.40 - an increase of nearly 4.8% or 1.3% in real terms taking into account Perth's CPI inflation rate of 3.5%.
The fairness test will apply to employees bound by a NAPSA immediately before the lodging of a workplace agreement which is taken to include protected notional conditions, according to advice from DEWR to the Senate inquiry into the Stronger Safety Net Bill.
The ALP maintains that a leaked DEWR document reveals a Coalition plan to both extend coverage of its IR system across the workforce and get 20% of workers onto AWAs - claims rejected as "farcical" by Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey.
The AEU has described the Federal Government's latest announcement on performance pay for teachers as "a desperate attempt to get AWAs into schools and impose the Federal Government's IR laws on teachers", but the Opposition has down-played it as electioneering.
Wage increases in private sector collective agreements have dropped in the first year of Work Choices from 4% a year to 3.5%, despite unemployment reaching near-record lows and a booming economy.
A full bench of the Federal Court has overturned an earlier finding that the CFMEU's WA construction branch and two officials breached the no extra claims clause in a construction agreement - accepting that workers went on strike against the union's advice.
The AiG told the Senate committee inquiry into the fairness test legislation today that s355 of the Workplace Relations Act should be repealed to allow employers to "call up" previous awards or instruments in future agreements.
