Rates of pay excluding bonuses have increased by 1% in the June quarter and 4.1% over the past 12 months in trend terms - and 6.1% over the past six quarters - maintaining pressure on the Fair Pay Commission to deliver a substantial cost of living increase when it makes its first determination in spring.
More than 2,500 ABC employees could go on strike from next month if they vote up a secret ballot that opens next week, while a senior AIRC member has found in another ballot ruling that unions can lawfully seek permission from members to conduct an indefinite strike.
John Holland Group was justified in summarily dismissing a senior executive who loaned company-owned vehicles to his son for about 12 months, the Federal Court has ruled.
The abattoir at the centre of a legal controversy over corporate restructurings under Work Choices has closed and is to go into voluntary administration, with the expected loss of more than 100 jobs.
A motorway maintenance provider has convinced the AIRC it had genuine operational reasons for making three employees redundant, in one of the first such cases under Work Choices. And in another unfair dismissal development, a self-represented employee has won what appears to be the first successful unfair dismissal case under the new act, after his former employer failed to appear before the AIRC.
Qantas low-cost subsidiary Jetstar Airways is offering 200 AWAs to new flight attendants on its planned Asian services, in a shift away from the group's longstanding collective arrangements with aviation unions.
In an important ruling for unions runnning proxy campaigns against public companies, the Federal Court has found the Finance Sector Union didn't unlawfully coerce the Commonwealth Bank to make a collective agreement when it ran a campaign targeting its shareholders in 2004.
