The AIRC has rejected an unfair dismissal application under the Work Choices exclusion for "genuine operational reasons" and has noted that few employees will have the resources or capability to challenge such an employer claim.
All NSW Government workers will be protected from Work Choices, after Premier Morris Iemma committed to shielding 30,000 employees of State-owned corporations from the legislation, in addition to the 186,000 Crown employees already sheltered from the federal legislation.
The AIRC has agreed to delay a secret ballot by 24 hours to ensure that attendance at the workplace isn't hampered by the Australia-Brazil World Cup soccer clash, which will be broadcast from 1.30am eastern time on Monday, June 19.
The ALP is seeking to highlight the room for individual negotiation within both the collective bargaining and the common law contracts streams as it comes under attack from the Coalition and employer groups over Opposition Leader Kim Beazley's weekend announcement that a Labor Government would scrap AWAs.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet and Sydney University Professor of Law Ron McCallum - two of the strongest critics of the Howard Government's Work Choices changes - have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday honours list.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley had today made it clear he will abolish AWAs if he takes power at the next election, while he has ruled out the introduction of any other form of statutory individual contract.
The Navy has been ordered to pay $25,000 in damages to a former officer who was effectively demoted after she took sick leave due to a depressive illness.
An ILO committee has upbraided the Australian Government for failing to consult it or provide detail of the changes wrought by Work Choices to collective bargaining rights and freedom of assocication.
If the ACT branch of the AEU required any more evidence that industrial action wasn't meant to be easy post-Work Choices, it has it in the confusion surrounding the effect of the transitional provisions on pre-reform bargaining periods.
A lawyer who refused a job offer following a merger for reasons that included concern about the new firm's past involvement in a discrimination case against a female partner was entitled to redundancy pay, the NSW IRC has ruled.
