The Ramsey group of companies was today ordered by the Federal Court to pay $209,217 in compensation and fines for the unlawful termination of 12 workers at its South Grafton Abattoir in breach of the pre-reform Workplace Relations Act's freedom of association provisions.
Terminations resulting from the restructure of part of a business may not be for genuine operational reasons if no attempt is made to find positions for sacked employees in other parts of the business, the AIRC has found.
The Work Choices laws are unsustainable and, unless they are significantly amended, will be "swept aside" in six to eight years, according to the Dean of Law at the University of Sydney, Professor Ron McCallum.
CEPU gives ASU coverage of Optus call centre workers in SA; Victorian district nurses to protest RDNS management practices; and New deadline for James Hardie asbestos victims deal.
An Adelaide cleaning business is the first company to be prosecuted by the Office of Workplace Services for allegedly lodging an agreement approved by employees who were not subject to the deal.
Acrimony over Work Choices dominated Friday's meeting of IR ministers, but some agreement was reached on the process of harmonising OHS laws nationally.
The Federal Government will reject a proposal by American Express Corporation for a new labour agreement allowing it to undercut Minimum Salary Levels for 160 temporary skilled migrants from Japan to work in a Sydney call centre.
Federal Safety Commissioner’s construction industry guidance released; MUA accuses ABB of bringing in replacement non-union workforce; Silvestri v CFMEU case to be heard next month; and SA Government backs lawyers over unlawful termination funding.
Toyota Motor Corporation Australia Limited today dropped its Federal Court action against nearly 300 individual workers after talks with unions stopped a strike at its Altona car plant in Victoria last week.
NECA and the ETU have struck a deal delivering building industry code compliance for the Victorian electrical contracting industry, but with some union-friendly conditions to be guaranteed in common law side deeds.