NSW IRC to arbitrate dispute over outsourcing and AWAs; Catholic agency claims PM's favoured research on income inequality is wrong; and Former NSW IRC member to head panel to define what "worker" means.
The new AWA provisions in the Howard Government's second wave of IR change will render awards all but irrelevant, by allowing employers to offer individual contracts that remove all existing conditions except for the five new legislated minima, according to Sydney barrister Ingmar Taylor.
At least seven out of every 10 employees oppose the Howard Government's plans to remove unfair dismissal remedies, sideline the AIRC and reduce the ability of unions to collectively bargain, according to a survey commissioned by the ACTU.
The announcement yesterday of the Howard Government's plans for a federal takeover of state IR has revived talk about a High Court challenge by unions and the states, but no-one, even among the potential challengers, is bullish about the chances of overturning a unitary system based on the corporations power.
As unions come to grips with the extent of the overhaul of Australia's IR system announced yesterday by the Prime Minister, John Howard, the fightback has already begun, with Unions NSW this morning conducting a state-wide delegates meeting via a live Sky Channel hook-up.
While employers today welcomed the Howard Government's planned sweeping changes to IR law, unions maintained they were ideologically driven, unfair and would lead to the creation of a US-style working poor.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, has today moved towards realising his long-held ambition to radically deregulate Australia's industrial relations system, announcing a series of measures in the Coalition's second wave of IR reform - including gutting the AIRC, lowering the benchmark for all agreement-making and removing the majority of employees' unfair dismissal entitlement - that goes even further than anticipated.
Queensland's IRC won't be prohibited from certifying agreements that contain generous attraction and retention allowances for the male-dominated technical workforce in the State's stricken power industry, after a full bench found the provisions didn't fall foul of pay equity requirements.
An AIRC full bench has clarified how to calculate the value of an employer-supplied car when assessing whether an employee's pay exceeds the remuneration cap for unfair dismissal claims.
