South Australia has today joined NSW and Western Australia in filing a High Court challenge to the constitutionality of the Federal Government's WorkChoices legislation.
Federal Government seeks tenders on employer advice service for Work Choices; Appeal court decision a warning on employers to be honest with employees facing redundancy or dismissal; and meat processor justified in standing down worker who fell ill on returning from surgery, says tribunal.
Fair Pay Commission chair Ian Harper says he won’t be able to ignore any state wage case decisions handed down before his institution's first minimum rates determination in Spring, while he won't rule out the possibility of the AFPC making submissions in its own right to state wage benches.
A five-member bench of the WA IRC, sitting in Court session, will on Monday hear preliminary arguments in Unions WA's application for a general wage increase of 4% for state award workers.
The abolition of unfair dismissal protections for workers in businesses with fewer than 100 employees under the Work Choices Act is likely to generate about 6,000 jobs - well short of the 77,000 claimed by the Federal Government, according to new research.
Despite the highest wages growth in seven years, inflation has edged down to just 2.8% annually, after a modest 0.5% rise in the December quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet has condemned the award rationalisation process as a "slash and burn process", criticised the absence of any women on the rationalisation taskforce's reference group, and expressed confidence in Tony Slevin, the sole remaining reference group member with a union background after Monday's appointment debacle.
The Australian Fair Pay Commission is significantly different from the UK model to which it has been favourably compared by the Federal Government, an academic seminar has heard.
Companies wanting to solve skills shortages with migrant labour will be presented with a planned national union protocol to be developed through the ACTU to protect Australian jobs and prevent exploitation of foreign workers.
