Government senators have today questioned the ABCC during a Senate Estimates hearing over why it has conducted 50% more construction site visits in Queensland than in Victoria, which it cites, along with WA, as the state with the greatest compliance problems.
The Workplace Authority is turning around agreements struck under the Rudd Government's IR laws within 20 days, as opposed to 30-plus days required for Coalition agreements, while employees at the agency once responsible for promoting AWAs last week voted up a union collective deal.
Unions and employers have begun using the provisions in the Rudd Government's transitional IR legislation allowing the variation and extension of pre-reform agreements for up to three years, with the AIRC extending at least four agreements last month.
The DEEWR is "on track" to have the Rudd Government's substantive IR legislation drafted by the end of the year and has seconded solicitors from law firms including Freehills to help with the task, the department told a Budget Estimates hearing in Canberra today.
The AIRC has reinstated an interstate truck driver sacked by Linfox Australia Pty Ltd for refusing a drug and alcohol test, after finding the company failed to explain the testing regime and wasn't authorised to conduct more than one test a year on each employee.
The Rudd Government's commitment to abolish key planks of Work Choices has put the future of Victoria's Office of the Workplace Rights Advocate under a cloud, with state IR Minister Rob Hulls today announcing an open-ended review of its role.
The NTEU is today serving universities across Australia with a log of claims that has at its core a 27% pay increase over three years, greater job security, the restoration of rights lost under the Coalition's funding rules, and the regulation of workloads.
In what's believed to be the first prosecution of its kind, Griffith University is seeking a $4,000 fine against a lecturer for failing to give sufficient notice of resignation.
The NSW Supreme Court has found that a redundancy offer Tooheys made by letter to six brewery workers was a binding contract, despite the company over-calculating their entitlements by a total of $640,000.
