The Howard Government's second wave IR changes have moved closer to a High Court challenge as state and federal ministers ruled out any compromise at today's Workplace Relations Ministerial Council meeting in Melbourne.
Seven years after they were blacklisted then sacked, the 16 Blair Athol coal miners at the heart of one of the bitter coal battles of the late 1990s are set to be compensated under a settlement reached between Rio Tinto and the CFMEU (mining & energy division).
DEWR workers in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and Perth will hold stop-work meetings tomorrow in a bid to put pressure on the department to shift its position on the issues currently standing in the way of an agreement.
The Howard Government is wasting no time in using its Senate control to advance its IR agenda, with the Cole building and construction industry legislation to be debated in the House of Representatives when the Spring session begins on Tuesday, and to reach the Senate on Thursday.
The High Court might hear the ACTU/ALP challenge to the Federal Government's $20m advertising campaign for its second wave IR changes on Monday, August 29 in Canberra, after Justice Bill Gummow held a directions hearing today in Canberra.
EDS Australia is facing its first serious union challenge since introducing s170LK agreements in 1999, with APESMA signing up hundreds of members at the US-based IT services giant ahead of a ballot on a new non-union deal later this month.
The ACTU has called on the Federal Government to legislate proposed entitlements in its undecided work and family test case as part of the second wave IR changes.
