AIRC quashes union representation clauses; Skilled to appeal implied term ruling; Terms extended for discrimination commissioners; ILO re-elects leader and launches report on unions; Queensland DIR publishes four-year plan; and lawyer recommends measures against SARS.
A Sydney academic has proposed making greater use of the Trade Practices Act to address unfair employment practices, arguing that doing so was appropriate given employers and employees were encouraged under federal IR law to "treat their exchanges as commercial contracts".
The Howard Government's legislative bid to stop employees of constitutional corporations from accessing state unfair dismissal regimes could be the beginning of the end of IR regulation by the states, according to Sydney University's Professor Ron McCallum.
In a surprising statistic, the University of Melbourne's Professor Mark Wooden claims that more than half of workers who are casual remain so by choice, and could convert to permanent status if they wanted.
Queensland IRC includes AWA rates in certified agreement; Greens urge adoption of 18 weeks paid parental leave; and Della Bosca retains IR portfolio in NSW.
The employee relations manager of one of Australia's largest labour hire companies, Adecco, has supported further regulation of the industry - and spoken out against the concept of joint employment.
The AWU is "very concerned" at the implications of an AIRC decision which rejected an unfair dismissal action by six scaffolders against their labour hire employer.