Minns Government legislation to boost protections for NSW gig workers and owner drivers in the road transport sector has passed both houses of State Parliament.
As Australia officially starts counting down to the May 3 federal election, Labor has added the abolition of non-compete clauses to its fledgling list of IR policies, the Coalition has upped to 41,000 the number of public servants' jobs it will ditch if it wins, and the Greens will push for a four-day work week and 12 days reproductive leave.
The FWC has found employer unfairly dismissed a worker when it cut his shifts after he took up work at a competing branch of the same franchise, because it wanted workers committed to the "awesomeness" of the business.
In newly-issued reasons, a full Federal Court has taken issue with the ETU challenging the suspension of industrial action on the Sydney rail network on the basis that the FWC bench treated unions as an "undifferentiated whole", finding that the unions told the tribunal the individual positions of the bargaining representatives "were irrelevant".
Mining unions have applied to the FWC for a majority support determination to force Rio Tinto to the bargaining table with workers at its Paraburdoo iron ore operations, while an IR researcher says in a forthcoming book that Pilbara workers' ambitious demands at the height of union power more than four decades ago can provide lessons for unions today.
The Ai Group has hinted at a potential "consensus" in a FWC-initiated case with economy-wide implications to consider inserting WFH provisions in the clerks award, while expressing concern that it would be "unfair" to require submissions ahead of results of a survey on the issue, with the tribunal now persuaded to ditch the deadline and hold a conference.
Private sector bargained pay rises of 4% and public sector spikes of 5.4% have combined to produce the highest average annualised wage increases in almost 30 years, according to new DEWR data.
In a significant breakthrough for a NTEU excessive workloads case, a FWC full bench has found a university could have breached its agreement by allocating tasks to academics they could not reasonably complete within full-time hours, but it is questioning what, if any, relief would be available.
A tribunal has ruled that a signed "letter of appointment" did not authorise an employer to deduct payments related to a relocation allowance from his wages.
