The ACTU has described as "disturbing" new data from the OEA showing that nearly 600 14-year-olds have signed AWAs over a 10 month period, while separate OEA statistics reveal that a total of 129,678 AWAs have been lodged under Work Choices and employer greenfields agreements have climbed to 218.
A wage claim of more than 10% over three years is the main sticking point in negotiations between BP and AMWU and CEPU members at the company’s Kwinana refinery in WA, where workers yesterday voted up a ballot for industrial action.
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Clauses in a proposed union agreement giving rights to "employee representatives," including in dispute settling procedures and to attend paid courses, are not prohibited content for the purposes of ordering secret ballots for industrial action, the AIRC has ruled.
Legislation streamlining the approval process for small businesses to bargain collectively - but excluding unions from that process - is expected to be put before federal Parliament again this week.
Western Australia's IRC has refused to adjourn a state unfair dismissal case pending the High Court's ruling on Work Choices, allowing a company to argue that the Commission has no jurisdiction to hear the matter under the new laws.
Optometry chain Australian Ophthalmic Supplies Pty Ltd (trading as Merringtons) will pay $17,565 in unpaid wages and $5,353 in interest to six current and former employees after consenting to orders in the Victorian Magistrates Court today.
A union has won a strike ballot order despite previously claiming prohibited content, in an AIRC decision that sets out principles for common law side agreements and negotiating "genuinely".
Today's inaugural meeting of State and Territory leaders - without the Prime Minister - has reached agreement committing to harmonising key areas of workers compensation and OHS, but has left IR until later.
The AWU and Caltex in Queensland will front the AIRC next week over the non payment of a wage increase linked to reducing operator numbers, but the union says bargaining in the oil industry this year has overall been straightforward and delivered annual wage increases of between 5% and 8%.
