The ACTU has kicked off a campaign to "name and shame" employers seeking to cut wages or conditions under the Work Choices Act, citing plans for a 5% pay cut by Melbourne auto parts maker Dana, and the lockout of 20 workers resisting AWAs at the Teys Bros abattoir in South Australia.
In a major setback to the Federal Government's new minimum wage fixing regime, the Queensland IRC has rejected Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews' attempt to have the State Wage Case adjourned until after the Australian Fair Pay Commission's first wage determination in Spring.
Universities have dominated this year's Employer of Choice for Women citations from the federal Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, taking out 21 of the 116 honourable mentions.
A senior ACTU committee that is co-ordinating union strategies in response to the Work Choices Act will meet tomorrow to beef-up plans for a long running community campaign ahead of next year's federal election.
The NSW Government is today applying for the State IRC to intervene in the long-running Boeing Williamtown dispute after a full bench inquiry found the Commission has the power to arbitrate because there is no federal award coverage at the site.
The ACTU has today called on Fair Pay Commission head Ian Harper to rule out cutting real wages, following comments he made at a BCA conference in Melbourne last night, while Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today announced the appointment of DEWR executive Jennifer Taylor as the AFPC's first director.
Reserve Bank Governor Ian Macfarlane today told a parliamentary committee that he did not expect Work Choices to affect the economy within the next 12-to-18 months, but he did expect that in the long term it would be "beneficial".
The OEA will stop sending letters seeking the consent of workers signed up to AWAs by their employers as a result of the passage of the Work Choices Act, a Senate Committee has heard.
The ABCC's extraordinary powers to exclude lawyers from representing people in its hearings have been exercised "on a handful of occasions" - but always against the same lawyer, a Senate Committee heard yesterday.
