A Federal Budget lean on new IR spending initiatives has provided an extra $9.4m over the next four years to fund the four new presidential members appointed to the IRC in September last year.
In a case with important implications for the conduct of union elections, a federal union leader who lost his job after a rival made false allegations against him during an election campaign has won $280,000 in damages for defamation.
The AMWU has moved another step closer to a national labour hire industry award, while a new research paper advocates urgent policy and legislative change to stop employers using labour hire use to cut costs and avoid responsibility.
NSW IR Minister John Della Bosca has revealed that he plans to implement many of Labour Hire Task Force's recommendations for re-regulation of the labour hire industry by the end of the year.
Despite the Government still running cold on the idea of paid maternity leave, peak superannuation lobby body the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) has signalled that it will be campaigning for mothers to continue to attract paid super contributions while on leave after the birth of a child.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott says he is seeking urgent legal advice about the power he and the Government have to prosecute the AMWU for breaching the law during the recent SA auto components dispute.
In an entitlements case resulting from Ansett's collapse, the TWU has failed to convince a full bench of the IRC that it should be able to go after non-employer companies linked to the airline's caterer, now in liquidation.
