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.
NSW's 14,400 police officers will begin voting soon on a new agreement with the State Government that provides a 16% wage increase over its four-year term plus death and disability insurance, while the states' 28,000 public sector nurses will receive 14% over the next 3.5 years after their pay dispute with the Government was put in the hands of the NSW IRC.
Manufacturing continues to be a male-dominated industry at all levels, but it is initiating changes that will help it adapt to the challenge of the tightening labour market, skills shortage and ageing workforce, according to a new equal opportunity agency report.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, will on Thursday make public the details of the Federal Government's IR agenda, after it was endorsed last night by Cabinet.
