A woman who had her employment contract unilaterally changed from full-time to part-time to accommodate her childcare needs has had her discrimination claim upheld in the Federal Magistrates Court.
Coal mining union leader Tony Maher has renewed his attack on the IRC, saying it has lost credibility since its "shameless stacking" by the Howard Government.
Former WR Minister Peter Reith has called on the BCA to resume its advocacy of labour market change and revealed that he has no regrets about his role in the 1998 waterfront dispute.
In a decision that reinforces the need for transparency in redundancy selection, an IRC full bench has ruled that an employer's selection criteria was unfair because it included the employee's workers compensation histories.
Significant productivity improvements on Melbourne's docks have boosted national container movements to 26.5 an hour, but performance has still fallen short of last year's record.
WR Minister Tony Abbott has signalled that the Howard Government will shift its focus away from legislation during its third term rather than bang its head against the Senate "brick wall".
In a Federal Court matter left over from the bitter 2000 Yallourn Energy dispute, a full bench majority has found that a value judgment will often be required to work out whether employees are covered by paid rates awards, and the views of the IRC should be given considerable weight.
In one of the first decisions on small business and procedural fairness since the Federal Government's unfair dismissal changes last year, the Commission has warned employers that they cannot use the new law as a "shield" for "improper, belligerent and bullying" conduct.
