The IRC has approved two multi-employer agreements, after accepting that the individual employers under each agreement didn't have sufficient resources to manage their own industrial relations.
The Australian arm of internet giant America Online has provided its 54 employees - most of them located in a Sydney call centre - with two weeks paid parental leave under a new non-union enterprise agreement.
The Shop Union has agreed under an enterprise agreement for KMart Garden Supercentres that it won't strike a deal with rival retailers providing penalty-free Sunday work during the life of the SDA-KMart EA.
The LHMU has told the parliamentary inquiry into WR Minister Peter Reith's second wave bill that employers should not be exempted from orders under s127 to stop or prevent industrial action, as the ability for unions to obtain such orders had imposed checks and balances on employers.
After failing to get its non-union agreement up for the bulk of the ABC's 4,000-plus employees, management at the public broadcaster has won a consolation prize, securing IRC approval for a non-union deal for its 200 retail workers.
The High Court has ruled the Army was justified in sacking an HIV-positive soldier because he was an OHS threat to his colleagues, in a judgment that makes it easier for employers to lawfully discriminate against employees.