Is a principal vicariously liable for the negligent actions of its independent contractor? No, according to a landmark majority judgment by the NSW Court of Appeal.
The IRC has taken the unusual step of taking into account discriminatory behaviour under s170CK in determining whether an employer had a valid reason to sack an employee.
The IRC has approved a modified s170LK agreement covering the clerical and administrative workers of Australia’s largest employer, Coles-Myer, six months after it refused to certify the original deal.
Awards which apply exclusively to union members only don’t offend the freedom of association provisions in the Workplace Relations Act, according to a senior full bench of the Industrial Relations Commission.
The IRC has refused to backdate an enterprise agreement pay increase for thousands of Western Power employees, after finding in an arbitration ruling that neither the union or the employer had engaged in “blatant obstructionism” that would justify such a move.
The burgeoning levels of employee share ownership have emerged as a major barrier to establishment of enterprise unions, following a landmark IRC ruling in which the IRC refused to register the staff association at the Suncorp-Metway “megabank”.
Unions can be expected to ramp up their wage expectations, after a new survey revealed that union leaders believe inflation will rise significantly in the year to June 2001.
The IRC has reinstated a teacher sacked for alleged rubbing the breast of a female grade five student, after finding it “inherently improbable” he committed the offence.
Rio Tinto has won a battle for the IRC to terminate an expired enterprise agreement at its Mt Thorley coal mine, in a move expected to be closely watched by other employers locked in bargaining battles with militant unions.
