New university research might put pressure on an incoming Shorten Labor Government to make it easier to use attendance ballots to authorise industrial action, after it showed they are far less likely to fail to reach the legislated 50% turnout target for protected action ballots than the dominant postal option.
Former Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has told the Federal Court that it was "not of interest" to her that alleged union donations she referred to the Registered Organisations Commission involved the Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten.
A gathering in Melbourne yesterday to celebrate the life of employer advocate George Polites heard tributes from IR Minister Kelly O'Dwyer and Hancock committee chair Keith Hancock.
Employers have decried as "unfixing a problem" a Labor attempt to disallow new casual loading offset regulations, Shadow IR Minister Brendan O'Connor countering that the rules are just the Government's way of shifting responsibility.
A Sydney-based Canadian paid a regular monthly untaxed figure in US dollars by a Calgary-headquartered company for which he agreed to act as an independent contractor has had his unfair dismissal claim upheld, with the FWC finding he was not genuinely retrenched.
There is an overwhelming case for change to the Fair Work Act, but neither a Shorten Labor Government nor a returned Coalition administration are likely to undertake fundamental reform, according to Adelaide University Professor of Law, Andrew Stewart.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a bus driver who said he left schoolchildren stranded at a bus stop and told passengers to walk because he was too stressed to keep working.
Minister Michaelia Cash's former chief-of-staff told police the source of information about pending AFP raids was the then FWO media advisor Mark Lee, the Federal Court has heard.
The Police Federation has failed to convince the FWC that Victoria Police's plans to introduce afternoon shifts breach their agreement, or that the potential for frontline officers to "bear the brunt" of community dissatisfaction made the change unreasonable.
