Rio Tinto has agreed to sell its NSW coal interests – including the Coal & Allied operations that were at the centre of the late 1990s battle of the IR "titans" – to Chinese interests for $3.2 billion ($US2.45 billion).
An FWC full bench has held that an employer is entitled to make workers redundant as part of a restructure to manage loss or damage caused by protected industrial action.
The CFMEU expects to lodge an appeal early next week against yesterday's FWC decision to terminate the agreement for AGL Loy Yang's power station and coal mine because of the "intractable" bargaining dispute between the parties.
The AWU suspects that iron ore mining giant Fortescue Metals Group is set to move its production workforce onto a newly-approved non-union agreement for a related entity.
A tribunal has ordered two male employees to resume standard business hours from next month after it upheld an employer's decision to boost operational efficiency by ending a long-standing flexible work arrangement that allowed them to leave early enough to pick up their children from school.
Labor and Greens senators are calling on the Federal Government to establish a new authority to provide a "just transition" for workers expected to lose jobs during the shift away from coal-fired power generation, but the Coalition says it would just increase bureaucracy.
A court has found that a driver engaged as a casual under a labour hire arrangement is an employee who is entitled to annual leave payments under the Fair Work Act.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a "competent and conscientious" communications advisor with an extensive media background, accepting he could not be redeployed because his resistance to social media made him unsuited to the new role's demands.
Most or all Australia's coal-fired power stations are destined for closure, according to the general president of the CFMEU's mining and energy division, Tony Maher.
