Abbott says unitary system needed to make unfair dismissal exemption effective; Commission makes recommendations to resolve concrete, shipping dispute; WA IR reforms pass second reading stage; and Victorian public sector workers win 11 months backpay.
The Federal Court has today ordered the CFMEU and its officials to pay $23,000 in penalties for FOA breaches and castigated organiser Jamie McHugh for engaging in "bully-boy" IR practices.
Australia's strong economic performance was the main basis for the federal IRC's decision this morning to award its largest ever flat-dollar increase in award rates.
Australia's low-paid workers were today awarded their biggest safety-net rise yet, with a full bench of the IRC granting an $18-a-week increase in all award rates.
Some 2,000 Qantas maintenance workers have voted up a deal that provides a minimum 1.35% increase from January 1 this year, when all other Qantas employees were enduring a wage freeze.
The Queensland Council of Unions expects that dental assistants and librarians will be the first employees to present claims to the State IRC that their work has been undervalued on a gender basis following the Commission's approval of its Equal Remuneration Principle.
Federal Labor commits to paid maternity leave and boosting flexibility for working families; Ricegrowers dispute settled; and IRC refuses s127 order for CSL Yarra.
Employers, rather than the public, should guarantee employee entitlements and they should be protected via industry trust funds or insurance schemes, Democrats' IR spokesperson Andrew Murray told a Canberra conference today.
