This week's BCA forum in Victoria illustrated how far the October election result has already shifted the IR goal posts, with a unitary system of regulation - something business leaders could until recently only dream about - described by the Prime Minister as not "shaking the foundations of anything", and by Opposition Leader Kim Beazley as "something that can be considered".
The Howard Government's legislation to reverse the AIRC's decision to extend severance pay obligations to small business will remove redundancy entitlements from one million employees, according to a Parliamentary Library paper.
Despite the extraordinary measures the Federal Government has taken to arm construction industry employers against CFMEU moves to reopen existing agreements, negotiations in Victoria are continuing, with both sides confident of securing a deal.
The CPSU-SPSF will seek to persuade the states to bring hundreds of thousands of employees of state-owned corporations back into direct Crown employment and remove them from the reach of likely changes to the WR Act based on the corporations power.
The NSW IRC, ruling on an unfair contract claim, has ordered outsourced service provider EDS to provide seven months pay to an American expatriate consultant who worked on the company's $4 billion Commonwealth Bank contract.
An employer is appealing the NSW IRC's reinstatement of an employee following a ruling that appears to make it easier to win interim orders to put a worker back in their job.
The CFMEU has failed in a bid to throw out the Building Industry Taskforce's attempt to revoke the entry permits of construction and general division NSW branch officials Martin Wyer and David Glass.
Construction unions could face fines of up to $110,000, uncapped damages and sequestration of their assets for unlawful industrial action – including past action – under the retrospective enforcement provisions of the Cole legislation, which will be introduced to Parliament next week, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews confirmed today.
