NSW Upper House committee recommends new offence of corporate manslaughter; AIRC changes panels as Munro prepares for exit; Electronic lodgment of agreements helps CFMEU get agreements in on time; AIRC launches new notification service for awards; AIRC member refuses to step down from union registration case; Commission full bench to hear test case on reinstatement of incapacitated employee; There's time to boost workforce participation, says OECD; and HSBC says wages heading for 4.25% next year.
The Howard Government's Cole Bill reflects a move away from "reluctant tolerance" of unions and towards repression, according to a newly-released legislation guide from the Federal Parliamentary Library. The library has also released new guides to other workplace legislation.
A full bench of the SA IRC has warned employers that clauses covering drug tests in employment contracts must clearly distinguish the penalties for positive results in random drug tests from those conducted on employees suspected of working while under the influence.
Channel 9 will later this month seek special leave from the High Court to challenge a NSW Court of Appeal defamation ruling that arose from a Sixty Minutes program on the BWIU and the construction industry. The case is one of a number of IR or employment-related special leave bids to be heard on Friday, May 28.
The Federal Court has extended an interlocutory injunction stopping the WA CFMEU (construction & general division) from exercising the right it won in the State IRC to enter without notice the $650 million ammonia plant construction site in the State's north-west.
In a major decision on labour hire, a full bench of the WA IRC has found that two workers on developer Gerry Hanssen's Perth projects were employees - not independent subcontractors as claimed by the labour hire firm that supplied them.
The Federal Court has ruled that employers can lawfully use stand down clauses when protected industrial action is disrupting operations, while it has also cast doubt on whether employer conduct during a bargaining period can constitute industrial action as defined in the Workplace Relations Act.
Despite union assertions that workers at a BHPB iron ore mine in the Pilbara are set to become the first to defeat an individual contract push in WA mining, the principal operating contractor at the site believes the mine will end up with both AWAs and a collective deal.
The FAAA and Qantas have agreed not to enforce provisions in their certified agreement requiring flight attendants to donate a day's annual leave to a leave bank after the OEA maintained it discriminated against non-union employees.
The AWU - which made a formal submission opposing the acquisition of Adelaide Brighton Ltd by Boral Ltd - has today welcomed the ACCC's decision to block the merger.
