Worker shortages now prevail across the economy, putting labour productivity into reverse and driving employers to conduct more frequent salary reviews and offer more non-pay benefits, according to the Reserve Bank.
Victorian construction industry employers and the CFMEU have defended the AIRC's involvement in the recent negotiations for a new deal for the sector, saying Vice President Iain Ross - who heads the Commission's construction panel - was "scrupulous" in his approach.
The NSW Court of Appeal has rejected an attempt by companies within a restructured group to stop the NSW IRC dealing with an unfair contracts claim against them on the basis that they weren't formed or incorporated until after the former employee making the claim had left the group.
NSW Attorney General Bob Debus yesterday introduced into Parliament his much-heralded legislation to restrict monitoring of workers by computers, cameras and tracking devices.
The Federal Magistrates Court has found a female employee was sexually harassed when a male co-worker asked for a bite of her banana and pushed a toolbox between her legs.
The AIRC has today given the ABC and MEAA seven days to come to an agreed position on how to proceed with an external inquiry into alleged bullying of an executive producer.
In another case dealing with whether Roy Morgan Research Centre (RMRC) interviewers are researchers or employees, the Supreme Court of Victoria has allowed the company's appeal against a VCAT finding that they were employees.
CEPU fails to quash official's unfair contract claim; Boeing workers to take more industrial action after stopwork today; AIRC failed to take into account dismissed worker's limited English language skills; and North American employers adopting aggressive "hire to hurt" strategies as labour market tightens.
The prospect of a future Labor Government seizing the opportunity to create an "anti-employer" national IR system is no reason to halt the Government's plans for a unitary system, because experience elsewhere shows any rollback would be modest, according to Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews.
A senior judicial member of the NSW IRC has confirmed that unions are free to decide how to spend any fine (or "moiety") they are paid when they successfully prosecute employers for OHS breaches.