The ACCC has begun Federal Court proceedings against both the Victorian branch of the ETU and a Latrobe Valley power station operator for allegedly entering into an agreement to prevent subcontractors without union agreements from being engaged on the site.
The AIRC has ruled that it has no power to allow parties to agreements to withdraw their certification applications, and has instead rejected a deal because it falls foul of Electrolux.
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has outlined his vision for a brave new IR world, with more individual contracts, stripped back awards, “ease of exit” from jobs and productivity-linked wage increases some of the key components.
The executive of Victorian Trades Hall Council resolved today to pursue a four-pronged strategy to deal with the barrage of IR legislation expected out of Canberra this year – and to also call on the State Government to take back the IR power it handed the Commonwealth in 2003 if awards are stripped right back.
In the same way that special measures were made available to women seeking to enter the paid workforce, governments could consider ways of helping men enter the unpaid workforce, according to Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Pru Goward.
A full bench of the AIRC has granted the LHMU leave to intervene in an application to certify a non-union agreement, holding that it didn’t matter that the union hadn’t sought a meeting with the employer before the deal was voted up.
About 780 former Ansett pilots have had a win in their long-running battle over entitlements, with the Federal Court finding their severance and redundancy pay should be calculated and paid under a 1991 policy document rather than a later, less generous, certified agreement.
The AIRC has accepted that a major university agreement with extensive union rights provisions doesn’t fall foul of Electrolux, in a decision sure to be relied on by unions in and outside the tertiary education sector.
Female employees at electrical products manufacturer HPM Industries Pty Ltd are entitled to four weeks paid maternity leave, while workers of retirement age can pocket a special one-off $5000 payment if they pass on their skills via an extended notice period, under the company’s fifth-generation enterprise agreement.
