State wage case applications being lodged today by all state union peak councils other than Victoria are seeking that state industrial tribunals convene an unprecedented joint sitting to consider their cases.
Unions NSW will today seek a 4% safety net increase for state award workers, in a case coordinated with other state union peak councils around the nation in response to Federal Government plans to stymie the 2006 national wage case.
Rio Tinto seeks amendments to WorkChoices to give primacy to common law contracts, extend union greenfields deals; Five-day Senate inquiry to proceed as planned after roundtable proposal abandoned; Work Choices legislation debate to continue into tomorrow; Labour productivity down 1.3% in 2004-05, says ABS.
The AIRC still has the authority under the Work Choices legislation to set minimum wages for federal award employees of unincorporated associations, raising the possibility that unions could continue scaled-down Safety Net Review cases, according to legal experts.
The Coalition has this evening used its numbers in the Senate to defeat an ALP move to push back the reporting date for the Senate inquiry into the Work Choices bill and to have the inquiry examine the changes to unfair dismissal laws.
PM wrong on Blair Athol "double dipping": Peetz; Costs of "pulp fiction" revealed, while $1.8m of WorkChoices booklets sitting in warehouse; Opposition making FOI bid on Work Choices advertising; $500,000 bill for external advice and lawyers working on Work Choices; Tasmania moves to protect workers from federal changes; and SA Government launches "Real Choices" website.
The 900 workers who secured redundancy pay from HIH in 2001 after the insurance giant went into liquidation would not be able to do the same thing under the Work Choices legislation, according to the FSU.
State governments and trade union peak councils have put in place heavyweight legal teams for their High Court challenge to the Federal Government's IR changes, while NSW unions have received advice from former Attorney-General and IR Minister Jeff Shaw that they have good grounds to attack Canberra's IR takeover.
Concerns that individual common law contracts will fall into the category of unregistered - and therefore unenforceable - agreements under the Work Choices bill appear unfounded, according to Flinders University Professor of Law, Andrew Stewart.