Employers in Queensland could have a powerful new disincentive to engaging casuals, if the Queensland Council of Unions is successful in a bid to boost casual loading from 19% to 28.5%.
Employers in the metals sector will be required to provide each union delegate with five days a year of paid trade union training leave, if unions succeed in an award variation application.
The NSW Government now looks likely to establish an inquiry into increasing the regulation of labour hire, after NSW Premier Bob Carr lent it his in-principle support.
The rebel "breakout" group of 11 construction companies negotiating on the 36-hour week in the Victorian construction industry are very close to finalising a deal, according to CFMEU construction and general division national secretary John Sutton.
The Federal Court has ruled that substitute public holidays are not extra public holidays but in fact are holidays in lieu, in a decision that could affect other employers with similar clauses.
Production and engineering employees at Rio Tinto subsidiary Novacoal's Howick mine in the Hunter Valley remain on basic award rates after the Federal Court rejected a union argument that a clause 20 agreement approved by the now defunct Coal Industry Tribunal still prescribed their wages and conditions.
BHP Coal is to proceed with its important bid for fines and damages against the CFMEU and CEPU for contempt of court over alleged union defiance of return to work orders.
A Queensland Government proposal to amend long service leave provisions could lead to an extra 80,000 employees a year getting pro-rata long service leave payouts.
The incidence of performance pay in big companies has skyrocketed, with more than half of employees now having their pay partly determined by individual merit-based increases, according to new research from the University of Sydney.
