Three Sydney Water workers who were stood down then sacked after their managers, responding to a complaint, found them having a barbeque at one of their homes during work hours with beer on the table and beer bottles strewn around the yard have won their jobs back.
The tariff cuts scheduled for 2010 should proceed but the Federal Government should set up a new $2.5 billion fund to assist the automotive industry until 2020, according to the long-awaited Bracks report on the sector - which also warns that more needs to be done to encourage high-performance workplaces and cost-competitive supply chains.
Telstra had made detailed plans as far back as February to put non-union collective agreements to its employees, despite negotiating with the ACTU throughout May and June for a union agreement, according to internal company documents released by the peak union body today.
The Federal Court has found car parts company Tristar acted lawfully when it declined to retrench its remaining employees, despite them performing almost no meaningful work, and has criticised unions for using the workers as "foot soldiers" in a political campaign.
The NSW Supreme Court has barred a former executive from using "inside information" from his former employer and ruled that the 30-month restraint in his deed of release was reasonable.
Rio Tinto has followed its iron ore rival BHP Billiton in making a new five-year non-union collective agreement with a small numbers of workers, prompting unions to push the Federal Government to close what they say is a loophole in its transitional IR legislation. Meanwhile, BHPB and unions are close to striking a new agreement for the company's remaining award-covered employees in iron ore.
Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard has rejected suggestions that drafting of the Federal Government's substantive IR bill was behind schedule, saying it was on track to be introduced into parliament in the second half of the year.
Employees at IBM Australia's operations centre will from next week begin voting on a secret ballot for industrial action, as part of a bid by the ASU to get up the first union collective agreement for the global technology company's Australian operations.
