NSW unions have called for adherence to principles of natural justice in dismissal procedures, after the Carr Government announced it would move to allow immediate suspension of public servants suspected of accessing pornography at work.
The Federal Government has described safety net adjustments as "blunt instruments", and has come out in favour of assisting the low paid via the tax-transfer system in its submission to the IRC in this year's living wage case.
The LHMU is seeking a pay rise of 10% a year and 14 weeks parental leave for the 2,000 or so workers it covers at Tabcorp Holdings' Star City Casino, while the ASU has struck a deal for the company's wagering call centres in Victoria which provides up to 52 weeks of redundancy pay for all employees, including casuals.
In an important move, the AIG has sought leave to appeal against the Federal Court's Emwest decision which effectively opened the door for unions to make extra claims during the life of federal enterprise agreements.
Some 47% of the AWU's members rate the union's performance as good or very good, according to an Auspoll survey, while 12% rate it as poor or very poor.
A team leader who claimed he failed to report a theft of company products worth $10,000 because the company and its workers had a "culture of no-dobbing" has had his unfair dismissal case rejected by the IRC.
In a strident attack, WR Minister Tony Abbott has warned that the Gallop Government's IR reforms could put it on the same path as the embattled Argentina.
Unions, long used to bad news on membership levels, can take heart from today's ABS data which shows density has dropped only slightly over the past 12 months and, for the second year in a row, the number of workers who belong to a union has actually increased.
Unions remain confident that Ansett employees will receive their full entitlements and, failing that, the "lion's share" of what they are owed, following the collapse of the Tesna bid today.
