In what will be a huge relief to employers, the High Court has today quashed the crucial Federal Court full bench rulings on transmission of business in Amcor and Gribbles.
Construction unions that take unlawful action from today will face penalties of up to $110,000, uncapped damages and sequestration of their assets, under the enforcement provisions of the Cole Bill, introduced to Parliament this morning.
The Howard Government will tomorrow introduce the retrospective enforcement provisions of the Cole legislative package, in a bid to stop construction unions putting pressure on employers to "go early" and sign new agreements.
In a development likely to cause serious internal ructions, the ACTU-backed organiser for the Pilbara, Will Tracey, is understood to be planning to run a ticket against the incumbent AWU WA leadership in the coming state elections.
Westpac says the cost of increasing its paid parental leave to 12 weeks from today will pay off by increasing post-maternal return to work rates from 70% to 80%.
More than thirty years after the landmark federal Equal Pay Case, Australian women still earn $150-a-week less than men, and about a third of all working mothers are casuals, a major Victorian Government report on pay equity has found.
ACTU says Howard Government changing the rules on wage-setting because employers failing to win the argument; Kobelke back for second term as WA's Employment Protection Minister; and Brian Boyd to lead Victorian Trades Hall Council.
An employee's unfair dismissal claim has been rejected after she failed to pay more than $7,000 in security of costs for the case, in which she claimed her emailed pictures of naked people's genitalia were "weird" and "unique" but not offensive or pornographic.
The average age of Australian workers is now 38.8 years, up from 36.6 in 1984, and workers in some industry sectors are ageing so rapidly that service delivery could be compromised, according to new research.
Telstra has been ordered to reinstate two employees after the AIRC found a management list of workers it proposed to make redundant "infected" the dismissal process and made it unfair.