In what is likely to be an historic last test case decision on awards, an AIRC full bench has today mostly refused an ACTU claim for extra rights to help workers accommodate their family responsibilities.
The BCA has renewed its push for the removal of fairness as the basis for the federal IR system, saying Australia could be the third wealthiest country in the world in 20 years if it pursues IR and other changes.
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.
