TWU uses safety to protect contractors; Taskforce won't help, says Opposition; LHMU forms alliance with US union; and ABS data shows individual deals at 39.1%.
A full bench of the AIRC has upheld an explosive company's appeal against an earlier finding that a despute existed between it and the CFMEU (mining and energy division), ruling the company's employees were not eligible to be the union's members even though some of them did explosives work on coal mining sites.
Just a week after the Federal Government launched its full-page newspaper advertisements, the Prime Minister, John Howard, has taken the next step in the battle to win public support for his IR proposals - establishing a new taskforce of Coalition members to help sell his message.
The Federal Government has emphatically rejected Opposition claims that award conditions more generous than the proposed federal statutory minimum entitlements will be cut under its second wave changes.
The AiGroup is seeking to limit the scope of the common rule declaration in Victoria of a key IT industry award, in a case which may establish new principles for the application of common rule awards in the State.
The Federal Government has made a mess of IR in its own backyard - an "unhappy experience" that should temper expectations about its second-wave plans for the general community, a conference was told yesterday.
Hot on the heels of WR Minister Kevin Andrews' announcement yesterday of extensions to the government's construction industry Code, DEWR has written to the MBA advising that the CFMEU's proposed pattern agreement in NSW breaches the Code.
The Federal Government faces difficulty aligning its "flexibility and freedom" rhetoric on its proposed Independent Contractors Act with its goals of maximising tax revenue and retirement savings, according to leading workplace relations academic Professor Andrew Stewart.
