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The AIRC has ordered a union to stop organising unprotected industrial action despite finding that its officials were actually discouraging the two-day strike at Inghams' chicken processing factory at Thomastown in Melbourne.

After travelling the country since early this year seeking views about the impact of Work Choices, Labor's IR Taskforce has delivered an interim report that includes seven "preliminary" findings, including that the abolition of the no disadvantage test has "permanently lowered" the floor for negotiating wages and conditions.

The director of the beefed-up Office of Workplace Service has warned advisers to employers that they are in his sights, and has also made clear that the OWS will be sampling deals lodged with the OEA to ensure Work Choices requirements are met.

ACT public school teachers will walk off the job for four hours on Monday after the largest secret ballot conducted so far under Work Choices overwhelmingly returned a "yes" vote on industrial action.

In its first ruling on Work Choices' requirement that protected industrial action be taken within 30 days of the secret vote authorising it, the AIRC has today rejected an employer's argument that a proposed 24-hour stoppage was unprotected because it was to begin more than 30 days after the ballot.

Prime Minister John Howard will sit down with Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews to look at ways of curbing the TWU's rights under the Government's proposed independent contractors legislation, following "significant" concern among Coalition members and senators about the bill.

Employees whose enterprise agreements are terminated under the Work Choices 90-day rule still have common law protection of their terms and conditions, the South Australian IR Society's annual conference has heard.

The proliferation of side agreements plus confusion over both the 38-hour week and new record-keeping requirements are the problem areas emerging under Work Choices, a senior lawyer maintains.

New employees will automatically make a 3% personal contribution to their superannuation in addition to the 9% compulsory employer contribution, if the Howard Government accepts bipartisan recommendations tabled by a federal parliamentary committee today.

Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews maintains that the Award Review Taskforce is due to meet its end of July deadline for rationalisation of award pay and classification structures, while the head of the Taskforce has told a conference that the complex current structure mitigates against dramatic change.