In his first public speech on reforming Victorian IR since delivering the report of the Victorian IR Taskforce, taskforce chair Ron McCallum has lambasted the Labor Party in Victoria for failing to have the courage to oppose former Premier Jeff Kennett's transfer of IR powers to the Federal Government.
Speakers from across the IR spectrum at the weekend's Victorian IR Society Conference have poured cold water on the idea that collectivism is inexorably on the wane.
It is "almost inevitable" the High Court will overturn PP Consultants, the Federal Court's landmark decision on transmission of business, Clayton Utz partner Joe Catanzariti told the Victorian IR Society Conference on Friday.
The Victorian metal industry unions have wrapped up a deal with the State's labour hire group that delivers the key elements of the Campaign 2000 claim.
Workers at Rio Tinto's Hunter Valley No.1 mine have today voted up a deal struck between the coal unions and the company, ending one of the most significant IR disputes of the last decade.
Some 20,000 Big W employees have won a 10.1% pay increase over three years and access to a new bonus for minimising sick leave under a new agreement struck with the SDA.
Victoria's 35,000 primary and secondary school teachers are set to topple their NSW counterparts from their traditional role as wage pacesetters, under a heads of agreement settled this week.
The pattern bargaining dispute between BHP and the coal unions has escalated again, with workers at the company's Queensland operations set to walk off the job for five days from Monday.
An IRC decision has opened the way for thousands of workers who aren't entitled to severance pay under awards to claim it via the Workplace Relations Act's termination provisions.
