The ACTU today, in response to criticism from Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, said it wouldn't be withdrawing its television commercials that seek to highlight the potential effects of the Federal Government's second wave IR plans on employees, while it labelled the Minister a hypocrite for allegedly breaching workplace laws in his own department.
The ALP and Democrats have jointly found that there is no empirical evidence or research to support the Federal Government's claim that exempting small business from unfair dismissal laws will create 77,000 jobs.
A report card by 17 leading academics and researchers on the Federal Government's proposed second wave or IR change has concluded that it has not only failed to address Australia's critical labour market problems but it will undermine employees' rights at work, deliver one-way flexibility, do nothing to increase productivity, and disadvantage the most marginalised workers.
Wage subsidies, greater employee choice in working hours, more training opportunities and universal access to job search assistance should be considered by the Federal Government to address populating ageing, a new OECD report says.
Around 30,000 Telstra employees will vote in coming weeks on a proposed new enterprise agreement that restricts annual wage rises to 2.5%, but locks in generous public sector conditions ahead of the planned full privatisation of the telco.
Television advertisements against the Howard Government’s second wave IR changes begin screening nationally today, in the first stage of an unprecedented $8 million media campaign commissioned by the ACTU.
In a battle that was once common in coal mining but has become increasingly rare, the CFMEU (mining & energy division) and one of the coal giants - this time Xstrata Coal - are squaring off over the company's bid to introduce AWAs at one of its sites.
Former AIRC senior deputy president and judge, Paul Munro, has delivered a blistering attack on the Coalition's proposed IR changes, accusing the Prime Minister, John Howard, of carrying out a vendetta against the Commission and the Federal Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews ("the altar boy") of wielding Howard's "stiletto" - but "don't ask him what it all means".
Employers have outmanoeuvered the ACTU and CFMEU in metalliferous mining by pursuing non-union and individual contract strategies and doing deals with the "more compliant" AWU, according to a review of last year's employer wins and losses by Deakin University academic Bruce Hearn Mackinnon.
