The South Australian Government has won its pay battle with the PSA, after the SA IRC accepted nearly all the Government's submissions in an arbitrated award covering the State's 27,000 public servants.
The CFMEU and building industry employers are tomorrow expected to find out if the Federal Government has moved the goal posts on the sector's code of conduct when Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, outlines his construction industry reforms.
The ACCI has written to church leaders in Australia seeking meetings to discuss the Howard Government's proposed IR changes, saying those involved in public debate should "avoid being misled" by unions.
Seventeen per cent of employers are likely to hire more staff as a result of the Federal Government's proposed abolition of unfair dismissal laws for businesses with up to 100 employees, according to a new survey.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, maintains the growth of the "enterprise worker" has been the most important economic development in Australia in the last two decades, and says it is "attitude of mind" that separates them from the rest.
Despite the tight labour market, most employers are still only paying lip service to efforts to retain existing employees, and are focussing their expenditure on attracting new staff, according to new research.
The AIRC has ruled that an extensive employee representation clause in an EBA does not give union officials an "unfettered right" to enter workplaces to attend senior staff meetings, even though all the senior officers were union members.
The SDA is among the unions taking up the ACTU's call to lobby Coalition backbenchers in marginal seats against the proposed federal IR changes. But it is coming up against a potential snag in the plan - appointments are proving hard to come by.