An AIRC full bench has today opened the way for employers to use the Workplace Relations Act's public interest test to win approval for substandard short-term agreements designed to help them cope with substantial change.
CPSU members at Centrelink have voted in favour of a new s170LJ agreement that extends opening hours by 60 minutes a day and provides a 12.5% pay rise over 39 months for the organisation's 22,000 employees, plus a $600 one-off bonus.
The AIRC has refused to certify a s170LK agreement covering workers with a disability because it provided a fixed supported wage rate of $1.71 per hour, regardless of individual workers' productivity.
A female police officer allegedly sexually harassed at work has had her vicarious liability claim against the Police Commissioner dismissed, but has succeeded in the same claim against the Federal Government.
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.