Following last night’s defeat of the Fair Employment Bill in the Victorian Upper House by the Liberal Opposition, Labor Premier Steve Bracks has offered to cede more of the State’s IR powers to Canberra - if all Victorian workers are moved onto federal awards and outworkers are protected.
The leader of the coal mining union has renewed his attack on the IRC, castigating the institution for its "vending machine" approach to issuing s127 anti-strike orders and lamenting that it has lost its way.
In a landmark ruling this afternoon, a Federal Court full bench majority has ruled that it is unlawful to use outsourcing in order to avoid award and agreement provisions.
The IRC will consider calling One Nation leading lights Pauline Hanson, David Oldfield and David Ettridge to give evidence to resolve questions about who was the true employer of a former Victorian director who is pursuing an unfair dismissal claim.
An IRC full bench has upheld a finding that a construction employer dismissed four workers because of their union activities during the 36-hour week campaign in the Victorian construction industry.
In an important award interpretation ruling, the Federal Court has relied on external documents referred to in an award to decide that the Commonwealth Bank had no right to unilaterally change its performance assessment system.
Westpac's introduction of six weeks paid maternity leave boosted the proportion of employees returning to work from 52% in 1995 to 94.5% in 1998 and saved the bank $6m a year in employee replacement costs, according to HREOC's new guidelines for avoiding discrimination against pregnant and potentially pregnant employees.
Two-thirds of jobseekers aged over 55 believe the biggest barrier to finding work is the perception among employers that they are too old, according to a new report.
