With the Coalition confirming it is still committed to remaining measures in its Omnibus Bill and Labor pledging to double down on insecure work, labour law academic Andrew Stewart says in a pre-Budget policy analysis that the nation faces a "big choice" on IR regulation.
Unions must adopt inventive strategies such as those used by Hospo Voice and RAFFWU to connect with and recruit workers, alongside the organising model used for the past 20 years, but legislative change is also necessary to enable multi-employer bargaining and allow industry-wide or supply-chain based protected action in support of it, according to a leading IR academic.
A child protection public servant who claimed on Facebook that the military would remove kids from unvaccinated parents and depicted the former NSW premier as Hitler has won compensation after a tribunal found circumstances rendered her dismissal harsh.
In what appears to be its second substantive ruling in its new anti-sexual-harassment jurisdiction, the FWC has found that a supervisor sexually harassed a casual chef when he badgered her to have sex with him, but has thrown out the case because the victim is no longer with the employer.
The Fair Work Act's equal remuneration objective is "broken but not irredeemable", while the legislation's work value provisions are a better avenue to achieve equal pay, according to IR experts.
In a thinly-veiled shot at a tribunal colleague who used her position to criticise vaccine mandates, a senior FWC member has emphasised that it is not for the Commission to undermine the law by entertaining parties' "alternative policy preferences".
Thousands of NSW public health nurses are voting on taking further industrial action in pursuit of a revised log of claims, which includes a "respectful" 4.75% pay rise along with a shift-based nurse:patient ratio system and increased staffing in specialised units.
The Federal Court has rejected a law firm's attempt to stay payment of compensation awarded to a junior solicitor, the judge finding he is "entitled to the fruits of his victory" while the judgment is appealed.
Former ASU assistant national secretary Linda White has emerged as a leading contender to replace veteran Labor Senator for Victoria and former frontbencher Kim Carr.
The FWC, in approving a rule change that permits the CFMMEU to draw its national secretary and president from the same division, has rejected mining and energy division warnings that it hands the construction and general division "absolute and unfettered control".
