IR Minister Michaelia Cash says that if the Morrison Coalition Government is returned at the May 21 election, it will double the maximum penalties for serious, deliberate and repeated breaches of the law covering workplace behaviour in the construction industry.
The Perth-based newspaper group controlled by billionaire Kerry Stokes has struck an in-principle agreement with three unions, ending an 11-week lockout.
A senior FWC member has sidelined himself from two unfair dismissal claims against Coopers Brewery after disclosing that he accepted donated beer for a 2014 fundraiser.
Labor has accused the Coalition of planning to revive changes to the Better Off Overall Test by re-introducing the remainder of its IR Omnibus legislation if it wins the May 21 Federal election.
The Coalition has today revealed a pre-election compromise position on its long-held push for "life-of-project" agreements, which would have a maximum term of six years, down on the eight-year regime jettisoned from its IR Omnibus Bill, but unions say it amounts to another Government strategy to cap pay rises.
In a case that illustrates sexual harassment problems at remote mine sites, the Commission has upheld BHP Billiton's sacking of a service technician after he groped and pursued two young female cleaners, prompting one to leave the "too unsafe to return" worksite.
With Labor holding just a handful of the 30 federal seats in Queensland ahead of the May 21 election, unions are pouring resources into three Coalition-held electorates and say their messages on job security and wage stagnation and are "resonating" with voters.
Two former long-serving employees of Queensland-based union Together have lodged fresh privacy complaints about alleged employee records breaches with the federal privacy watchdog against the union and its top three elected officers, including one who has nominated to replace the outgoing ALP state secretary.
The FWC's president has provisionally accepted a bus operator's bid for a cloak of secrecy over parts of its submission to the minimum wage case that seeks to be excluded because its NSW Government contract for outsourced services prevents it passing on wage increases to customers, while its workers, who received a recent increase, would be "double dipping".
Victoria's Supreme Court has ruled that an employer might have treated a manager unfavourably because of her age and sex when it ignored her repeated requests to provide her similar over-agreement pay rates to those afforded to male colleagues, while it has also found that the State's equal opportunity laws enable consideration of "unconscious bias".
