The two trapped Beaconsfield miners may be out but the debate over the impact of Work Choices on OHS continues, with Shadow IR Minister Stephen Smith this morning maintaining that the prohibited content and right of entry rules in the federal legislation undermined workplace safety.
In a decision canvassing the concept of joint employment, NSW IRC Commissioner Ian Cambridge says that in many instances "extensive, costly litigation could be avoided if statutory provisions clearly provided for joint or multiple employers".
The NSW IRC has refused to reinstate a long-serving NCR employee sacked last year for receiving pornographic emails sent by senior members of the company, because it breached a "zero-tolerance" policy in a corporate code of conduct.
On the final day of the six-day High Court challenge to Work Choices, the Chief Justice, Murray Gleeson, delivered what could be a serious blow to the States/unions bid to get him on-side when he described constitutional corporations' employment relationships as "a matter of business".
A court has ordered the CFMEU and one of its delegates to pay $14,000 in penalties for coercing a soil testing company to make an agreement under the pre-reform Workplace Relations Act.
The AIRC today adjourned the start of a test case on Work Choices' unfair dismissal provisions as the employer, Triangle Cables, sought more time to answer union allegations that it was above the new 100-employee threshold for claims.
The expansion of federal powers and the diminution of the states' powers is a "natural trend" that is the local expression of globalisation, the Commonwealth Government told the High Court's Work Choices bench today, in response to further concerns raised by Justice Michael Kirby about the legislation's effects on the state/federal division of power.
Vopak Terminals has won a s496 order against industrial action by the NUW at its Port Botany loading terminal in Sydney, and P&O has won a similar order against the MUA at its Fremantle Port in WA.
The Office of the Employment advocate is refusing to approve enterprise agreements that allow for union safety training, reinforcing Labor claims that the Work Choices Act will erode OHS standards, according to the CFMEU's mining and energy division.
The AWU yesterday agreed with High Court Justice Callinan's suggestion that the Commonwealth might have attempted at least some "window dressing" to explicitly link the Constitution's corporations power with Work Choices' provision to prohibit some types of workplace agreement clauses.
