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Prime Minister John Howard has called on employers to fund an IR advertising campaign to combat the ACTU's anti-Work Choices campaign, but so far major employer groups have rejected the idea.

At a time when the federal ALP is grappling with its alternative to Work Choices, the Australian Institute of Employment Rights (AIER) has developed a draft 10-point charter of employment rights which one of its members, former AIRC senior deputy president Paul Munro, has described as the foundation for "insurgent" IR policy.

Darrell Lea Chocolate Shops Pty Ltd has rejected what it calls "inaccurate announcements" by unions and the ALP about its introduction of AWAs, saying it has reduced its total penalties and allowances bill by about $80,000 or 5% from a total of about $500,000 last year, with some 500 casual sales assistants now working under the individual contracts. As a proportion of its total wages bill, the savings represent less than 1%, it says.

A British school has won a legal appeal over its right to require a Muslim employee to remove her veil while teaching students, even though the policy was indirectly discriminatory on religious grounds.

In a blow to Virgin Blue, its cabin crew have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed enterprise agreement that sought to introduce new rostering and fatigue management systems.

The ABCC is considering issuing a non-compliance report on the alleged "blue flu" mass sick leave outbreak on the CTA building project in Perth in 2005, but the CFMEU says it has been informed that no legal action will be taken over the long-running case.

Workers worried about their employment security take more illegitimate sick leave and are less engaged with their job, according to a survey released today.

Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Mitch Hooke has warned the ALP against "backsliding" on IR regulation, in a call for "a third wave of reform" to address capacity restraints in the national economy, particularly a lack of government investment in essential infrastructure and skills training.

ACTU president Sharan Burrow led a small protest outside a Darrell Lea confectionery store in Melbourne today to highlight the loss of penalty rates for people working on the Easter public holidays this weekend.

The post-Work Choices drop in union membership revealed today is consistent with the pattern experienced after the introduction of legislation hostile to unions in the UK, NZ and Australian states in the 1980s and 1990s, according to Griffith University Professor of IR, David Peetz.