Clayton Utz partner Graham Smith has warned that owners of transmitted businesses face big penalties under Work Choices if they fail to comply with new requirements to notify transmitted employees about their employment status, while Lander & Rogers partner Mark Sullivan said the new processes for authorising industrial action could create a four-week delay and give employers the upper hand.
While Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today rejected suggestions that low-wage employees would be disadvantaged by regulations allowing minimum wage averaging, practitioners also raised concerns that salary sacrificing for the low-paid could be abused.
AWAs made under Work Choices that authorise extra hours but eradicate overtime pay could contravene the new minimum AFPC standard, according to a Sydney barrister.
The Federal Court has upheld a ruling that the CFMEU's WA construction branch and two officials should pay a total of $8,500 in penalties for breaching the no extra claims clause in a construction agreement, despite union claims that the workers went on strike against its advice.
Unions are likely to find ways to circumvent the new ban on providing unfair dismissal remedies in agreements, while the results of next year's NSW election could be the key to whether a truly national IR system can get up, Flinders University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart told a Sydney conference today. He also explained how next week's re-numbering of the Workplace Relations Act would work.
Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today rejected attacks by the ACTU and ALP on the new Regulations to the Work Choices Act as "hysterical outbursts" and "absurd claims."
The Regulations released today for the Howard Government's Work Choices IR changes outlaw a wide range of provisions in agreements, including any that prohibit AWAs, fail to pertain to the employment relationship, or allow union right of entry.
The remainder of the Work Choices amendments to the Workplace Relations Act will take effect from March 27, while Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today released the Regulations for the new IR laws.
The escalating tension between Qantas and its pilots over the expansion of the low-cost Jetstar subsidiary reached the Federal Court today, with the pilots arguing that the decision by Qantas to transfer four long-haul aircraft but not their air crews to Jetstar was unlawful.
