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.
WR Minister Tony Abbott has today introduced four new bills, including one that extends federal unfair dismissal laws to cover 85% of employees and another that provides for a second wave of award simplification.
About 70% of Australian workers have experienced financial difficulty in the past year, according to preliminary details of a survey the ACTU has released ahead of announcing its 2003 Living Wage Claim tomorrow.
In a further confirmation that wages are on the way up, rates of pay excluding bonuses grew at 1.3% in the September quarter, equalling the biggest quarterly rise since the Wage Cost Index began in 1997.