Family First Senator Steve Fielding has used his first speech to Parliament to throw down the gauntlet to the Howard Government on IR, saying it is time for the Government to start delivering family-friendly rather than market-friendly workplace policies.
A former NSW TAFE teacher who has Hepatitis C has won $19,575 compensation after the State Administrative Decisions Tribunal found he was discriminated against when he was denied relocation opportunities when accepting a redundancy payout.
In what is likely to be an historic last test case decision on awards, an AIRC full bench has today mostly refused an ACTU claim for extra rights to help workers accommodate their family responsibilities.
EDS Australia is facing its first serious union challenge since introducing s170LK agreements in 1999, with APESMA signing up hundreds of members at the US-based IT services giant ahead of a ballot on a new non-union deal later this month.
Regulation has failed to keep pace with the 16% annual growth of labour hire since 1990, according to a parliamentary inquiry that has called for new guidance to curb long hours and ensure breaks and new measures to make it easier for on-hire workers to obtain loans and take holidays.
Despite the tight labour market, most employers are still only paying lip service to efforts to retain existing employees, and are focussing their expenditure on attracting new staff, according to new research.
The NSW Supreme Court has found two major Australian companies liable for misconduct by one of their former security managers, even though his behaviour breached company policies and he was terminated when the misconduct was discovered.
Unfair dismissal cap rises to almost $95,000; AIRC refuses Holden s127 bid after considering employee rights to freedom of expression and association; Stay for eyebrow ring reinstatement; and New book champions independent contracting.
Private sector unit labour costs in Australia will rise by 5% in 2005, a faster rate of growth than anywhere in the developed world, according to the OECD, while a leading investment bank says the recent four quarters of trend decline in labour productivity is Australia's worst efficiency setback in two decades.
