The President of the AIRC, Justice Geoffrey Giudice, has referred two Victorian construction industry agreements to a full bench of the Commission to determine whether provisions they contain fall foul of the High Court's Electrolux ruling.
NSW introduces workplace fatalities bill; OECD recommends NZ boost childcare subsidies to boost female labour force participation; Multi-business agreement covers 15,000 public sector workers; 60% of non union members admit to free riding, says ACREW survey; "Scab" slogan constutes harassment, Skill shortage to shift focus of HR practitioners; and Szoke to be new head of Victorian EO Commission.
The AIRC will run a large deficit in the current financial year and faces greater losses in coming years that will compel cuts in the Commission's services from 2005-06 if the Federal Government doesn't provide more funding, according to its President, Justice Geoffrey Giudice.
Wesfarmers Premier Coal's challenge to the lawfulness of industrial action by the AMWU's WA branch, which will be heard by the Federal Court early next month, is set to be the next key case on the implementation of the High Court's Electrolux ruling following Friday's Ballantyne decision.
Stephen Smith is Federal Labor's new Shadow IR minister, while new frontbencher Tanya Plibersek is taking on the newly-created position of work and family spokesperson, as the Opposition faces a barrage of IR legislation from the Howard Government.
The proposed 20-employee threshold for exempting small businesses from federal unfair dismissal laws is too high and five employees would be a more appropriate limit, while Electrolux shows the High Court has lost its understanding of labour law, according to Sydney University Dean of Law Ron McCallum.
The "so-called" black letter lawyers in the High Court's Electrolux majority took a misdirected, unbalanced activist approach that amounted to them acting like a "blind assassin", according to former senior AIRC member Paul Munro.
