P&O Ports and the MUA are close to finalising a new national agreement that provides a 12% pay increase over three years plus productivity-linked bonus payments to some 2,000 workers, converts most casuals to guaranteed wage employees and introduces six weeks paid maternity leave.
The NSW Labor Council has finalised a memorandum of understanding with local governments, which is aimed at preventing councils from trading with contractors that do not provide their workers with adequate pay and conditions.
A major review of South Australia's IR laws has recommended significant changes - many involving extending the state safety net to those workers who have fallen outside it over the last two decades.
The AIRC is expected to issue an interim award for contract call centres this week, in an important deveopment in employment regulation in the industry.
Australia's IR system would be further deregulated, state and federal laws unified, the AIRC weakened, Commissioners appointed on fixed terms, common rule awards scrapped, and existing requirements on employers made voluntary under a eight-year blueprint for IR reform released this morning by the ACCI.
The High Court will test the current definition of "employee", after the LHMU lodged an appeal against an AIRC finding that a worker was a contractor and not an employee at the time he was dismissed.
A Queensland tribunal has ordered a hotel manager to pay $39,000 in damages, after it found his "predatory" treatment of one of his staff constituted sexual harassment.
Major construction company Grocon is taking a hard line against inefficient work practices and yesterday successfully sought s127 orders as part of its new legal strategy.
In an important ruling that has possible implications for security, contract cleaning, hospitality and car park industries, the Queensland IRC has ruled that employee long-service entitlements are transferred to the new employer when a management tender changes hands.
