The NSW Road Transport Association has this morning acknowledged to the Senate Inquiry into the federal independent contractors legislation that there may be an initial "rush to the bottom" if the Federal Government reverses its earlier decision to exempt NSW and Victorian owner-drivers.
A major employer has failed to strike out a discrimination case by a sales representative with an alleged gambling addiction who was denied salary maintenance when she suddenly moved from Melbourne to Perth to escape Victoria's poker machines.
The Federal Government's construction industry watchdog has secretly interviewed 28 people under the threat of imprisonment since last October - more than half in Western Australia where it is prosecuting workers on the troubled Perth to Mandurah rail project.
AIRC adopts interim rules for Work Choices era; High Court hears states' challenge to national self-insurance scheme; RBA cites tight labour market as reason for today's interest rate rise; Tasmanian Working Women's Centre to close; and Employers encouraging former employees to return.
Unions will hold their next major anti-Work Choices protest at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on November 30 under a deal between the VTHC and the Melbourne Cricket Club.
Some 2,700 employees of Coles Myer subsidiary OfficeWorks have won a 3.5% annual pay rise under a proposed new deal with the SDA that gives the company more rostering flexibility during peak times.
Major construction player John Holland was the first company to lodge a Work Choices employer greenfields agreement, and it has since gone on to register five more.
Stevens to replace Macfarlane as Reserve Bank governor; Coalition MPs won't own Work Choices, says ALP; and AMIEU calls for tighter enforcement of foreign work visas rules.
The AIRC has dismissed an appeal by the NSW branch of the TWU against a ban on industrial action, in a decision that asserts Work Choices' authority over state-registered unions and emphasises the flexibility of s496 orders.
Less than a fortnight after Prime Minister John Howard told the small business community that no one would benefit more than it from Work Choices, a survey has found that 40% of small businesses believe the legislation is unfair to employees, while only 9% said they are planning to use it to change employment, pay or conditions.
