Leadership team candidates get up at CPSU; Fair Termination Act takes effect; Fisher moves to BusinessSA; Drug company to pay $32,000 costs to female employee discriminated against after maternity leave; Unions help productivity in US but hinder it in UK, says study; Demand a better package, NTEU tells Senate; and AIRC president eulogises over the late Colin Polites' love of red wine and cricket.
In a new tactical approach by the union movement, the AWU has lodged a submission with the ACCC challenging on competition grounds the merger of Abigroup Limited and Baulderstone Hornibrook.
The Government has increased its higher education package by $200 million in a bid to secure Senate support, but the new proposal – which has won over the Australian Vice Chancellors Committee – retains the link between additional funding and regulating IR.
ACT employers found guilty of recklessly or negligently causing the death of a worker could be imprisoned for 25 years and be fined up to $5m, after the Territory's parliament last night passed Australia'a first industrial manslaughter laws.
Is it enough, in non-union bargaining, to inform employees that they are entitled to be represented by a union, but not that they can request union representation? According to the AIRC's Deputy President Reg Hamilton, the answer is no.
Federal unfair dismissal applications during the last year were at the lowest level since the Workplace Relations Act came into operation in 1996, according to the AIRC's 2002-2003 annual report.
A general manager who was effectively summarily dismissed just two months after taking up a job with a top 500 organisation has been awarded 12 months notice, valued at around $300,000, after the NSW IRC ruled he had an unfair contract.
Victoria has moved a step closer to a truly unitary IR system, after the House of Representatives - with the Opposition's support - today passed Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews' legislation accepting referral of the State Government's common rule award-making power.
