Bargaining to replace Telstra's main enterprise agreement is at an impasse, with the telco refusing to sign a side deed proposed by the ACTU, saying it would contravene the national construction code and prevent it tendering to build the $4.7 billion National Broadband Network.
AIRC makes dedicated websites for priority modern awards; Dismissed BHPB worker refused injunction for reinstatement; Planned TCF tariff cuts would benefit economy, says Productivity Commission; and HREOC targets employers over age discrimination
Industrial action in the form of 18 consecutive four-hour stoppages - resulting in a three-day strike by electricians at Cadbury Schweppes' Claremont factory in Tasmania this week – is protected, the AIRC has decided.
A retailer that strictly enforced a "Dickensian" policy requiring employees at two Tasmanian stores to work unpaid for 15 to 30 minutes before and after their shifts has been ordered to pay almost $53,000 in penalties.
NSW rail unions have called off the strike action planned for July 17, after they made significant progress at a meeting today with Transport Minister John Watkins and agreed to try to finalise a new deal in talks tomorrow.
While the ACTU has welcomed the AFPC's across-the-board $21.66 increase to minimum rates today as "recognising that working families are doing it hard" and the Federal Government has described it as "appropriate", the ACCI maintains the pay rise is "economically risky", and the AiG says it is "on the high side of expectations and will add to the pressures already on business".
In its third minimum wage determination - and its first under a Labor Government - the Australian Fair Pay Commission has this afternoon awarded an across-the-board $21.66-a-week pay increase to employees on minimum rates.
Patrick and the MUA last week secured an extension of their enterprise agreement until October 2010, taking advantage of the fast approval process offered under the agreement variation and extension provisions of the Rudd Government's transitional IR legislation.
The AIRC will on Thursday begin hearing Railcorp's bid to end the bargaining period with five unions, if a last-ditch meeting with NSW Transport Minister John Watkins this morning fails to resolve the dispute.
