Queensland Council of Unions secretary Jacqueline King says Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is "receptive" to calls for new gender equity laws replicating the State's legislation that has "made more of a difference" in its first year than in the previous two decades under the Queensland IRC's equal remuneration principle.
A jeweller who showered a manager with gifts and compliments, along with unrequited declarations of his affections and a slap on the bottom, is facing a record damages payout for sexually harassing her and victimising her for complaining about it, while his law firm is under fire for the "intimidatory and vindictive" tone of its correspondence.
A FWC presidential member has with "misgivings" endorsed the termination of a freshly-minted deal with almost three years to run, noting the employer's indirect explanation that it did not want to invest time and effort into contesting a union appeal against its approval.
A former Indian High Commissioner who paid a live-in domestic worker $9 a day to keep his eight-bedroom Canberra home, after he arranged for her "posting" in Australia for the "reception and entertainment of guests", has been ordered to pay more than $130,000 compensation.
The UWU has struck in-principle agreements covering thousands of workers at Melbourne's Crown casino after management tabled an improved offer, which averted planned protected industrial action in the form of a mass walk-out on Saturday evening.
A tribunal has awarded $236,000 in damages, plus potential further lost earnings and interest, to a long-serving language teacher who developed a psychological injury when his employer "excluded" him from the workplace for two years after he suffered a debilitating spinal stroke.
The High Court will decide in two weeks whether to grant BHP special leave to challenge a ruling that clarifies when employees can reasonably refuse requests to work on public holidays.
Optus has again failed to overturn a finding that underpaying workers' long service leave entitlements when they leave might count as a continuing offence under Victorian law, clearing the way for the State's Wage Inspectorate to pursue daily fines that could run into millions for the period before the telco rectified the alleged issue.
Former IR barrister Yaseen Shariff has told a ceremony welcoming him to the Federal Court how during his childhood in India his grandmother urged him to adopt the "dogged" character of Australian cricket captain Allan Border, while the gathering learned how he came to be known among chamber colleagues as "The Fox".
Minister for Women Senator Katy Gallagher has today issued arrangements for provision of $32 million in funding over four years to establish or maintain working women's centres across all states and territories.
