NSW’s Williams inquiry has put up six options for a national IR system that range from full referral of powers to Canberra, to retaining state systems but underpinning them with national standards.
Williams inquiry seeks feedback on six options for national IR system; No more changes to fundamentals of Work Choices, says Hockey; Hockey responds to nurses’ television commercials; Rudd Government would set up new skills body; Bligh backs QCU’s Grace Grace for Beattie’s seat; and Former union officials join Labor ranks in Victorian Parliament.
Union collective agreements can help improve business outcomes but only with cooperation, trust and defined mutual interest, often through the role of local delegates, according to an AMMA study released today.
In a case that has exposed a major hole in Work Choices’ agreement-making provisions, the Federal Court has refused to declare void a five-year non-union collective deal despite finding the employer misled employees about its contents before they voted it up. And, in a further ruling that the SDA says “leaves employees hanging over a cliff”, the court also held that even if it did void the deal, the workers’ previous agreement would not be revived – meaning they would fall back onto the Work Choices minimum standards.
The Australian employer community has responded to Work Choices like sharks that have tasted blood, and they “monstered” Labor over the first version of Forward with Fairness to ensure they didn’t have to stop their feeding frenzy, according to Workplace Research Centre director John Buchanan.
Five years after her last attempt, Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja has again introduced into parliament a bill providing for government-funded paid maternity leave.
The MBA has called for even tougher right of entry laws, an expanded role for the ABCC, a prohibition on unions initiating independent contractor prosecutions and the conversion of the construction sector code of practice and guidelines into regulations, in its IR blueprint released today.
The Federal Court has ordered a Tasmanian hotel group to pay a $170,000 penalty, after finding it engaged in deliberate, reprehensible conduct when it applied duress in a bid to force vulnerable employees to sign AWAs that cut their pay.
Employers are using template non-union collective agreements under Work Choices to strip away conditions and cut pay by up to 18% in retail and 12% in hospitality, according to comprehensive analysis released today by the Workplace Research Centre.
Victoria Police and the state Police Association have today agreed in principle to a settlement of the state's long-running pay dispute, but both sides differed on the full extent of wage rises under the new enterprise agreement.
