CPI rises to 2.5%; ACTU says its time to bring James Hardie to account; Melbourne Cricket Club to appeal against long service leave ruling; Queensland reviews bonuses for executives; Rio Tinto executive to head mining skills taskforce; Andrews urges top 500 to audit workforce age profile; and Sydney University general staff vote up agreement.
An ASU official has been given two weeks to provide call centre company Salmat a written apology for breaching an AIRC confidentiality order over an AWA dispute, or face a referral to the Director of Public Prosecutions and possible criminal charges, in a ruling that highlights the strict secrecy provisions surrounding AWAs.
Coalition's unitary system plan a takeover, says Labor; Victorian Government moves to stop paramedics bans; Johnston sentence appeal starts next week; AIRC full bench to begin hearing Victorian common rule case next week; NSW IRC takes hard line on OHS risk elimination; and Yallourn deal delivers 6.5% a year, but CFMEU says workers could have done better.
The ACTU has today called for employers to be given greater subsidies for apprentices, to overcome a forecast shortage of 130,000 skilled workers in 2009.
Just weeks after he retired from the AIRC, Justice Paul Munro has criticised the unwillingness of some AIRC full benches to look behind purported non-employment arrangements.
No-one should be appointed to the AIRC who doesn't know a lot about industrial relations; the Commission's inability to get involved early in some disputes has led to "grim outcomes"; and most IR ministers and their advisors have little understanding of the Commission's behind-the-scenes work. So said the AIRC's Senior Deputy President, Justice Paul Munro, on the eve of his retirement.
Queensland's peak union body has today outlined its agenda for greater regulation of the labour hire sector, in an address to the State's IR Society, while IR Minister Tom Barton has detailed plans to make family-friendly amendments to IR legislation.
A full bench of the AIRC has declared an industrial advocate "not a fit and proper person" to appear before it, labelling as "disgraceful" his behaviour in an unfair dismissal matter.
The NSW Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by an employer to have declared beyond jurisdiction a contempt finding against it by the NSW IRC (in Court Session).
