The AMMA's new blueprint for IR change has as its centrepiece a new stand-alone Contract of Employment Act that would allow employers to opt out of the IR system and avoid unions if they make common law contracts that comply with a set of less than 10 minimum statutory requirements.
After 16 months of wrangling, South Australia's IR bill has finally passed though Parliament - watered down by the political process but still containing a swathe of changes that will strengthen the State's safety net.
The Federal Government has once again threatened to tie vehicle industry assistance to IR reform, putting employers on notice that it expects "significant" change over the next five years.
The High Court's decision today in the Gribbles transmission of business case hasn't entirely resolved questions about whether a business transmits when one outsourced service provider replaces another, according to Flinders University Professor of Law, Andrew Stewart.
A newspaper publisher discriminated on the grounds of sex when it made a female graphic designer do more typing than her male colleagues, and treated her as a troublemaker when she complained, a tribunal has found.
In what will be a huge relief to employers, the High Court has today quashed the crucial Federal Court full bench rulings on transmission of business in Amcor and Gribbles.
Construction unions that take unlawful action from today will face penalties of up to $110,000, uncapped damages and sequestration of their assets, under the enforcement provisions of the Cole Bill, introduced to Parliament this morning.
The Howard Government will tomorrow introduce the retrospective enforcement provisions of the Cole legislative package, in a bid to stop construction unions putting pressure on employers to "go early" and sign new agreements.
In a development likely to cause serious internal ructions, the ACTU-backed organiser for the Pilbara, Will Tracey, is understood to be planning to run a ticket against the incumbent AWU WA leadership in the coming state elections.
