St George has begun offering its 8,500 employees interest-free loans of up to $4,000 to purchase ecologically sustainable infrastructure such as rainwater tanks for their home and boosted its paid parental leave from eight weeks to thirteen weeks, in a policy change announced today.
The operative date for the AIRC's flow-on of AFPC increases in minimum wages and allowances to transitional employees subject to applications filed after December 1 will be the date of the order, an AIRC full bench has confirmed.
An employee sacked for having pornographic material on his computer at work has won a new hearing of his unfair dismissal application, in a full bench ruling on the principles for determining whether a termination is harsh, unjust or unreasonable.
New Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has today, as expected, named his deputy, Julia Gillard, as the new Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Employment, and Social Inclusion.
Some of the amendments to the Workplace Relations Act passed by Parliament this week - and likely to receive Royal Assent next week - could cause substantial practical difficulties for employers with pre-reform agreements, according to Flinders University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart.
AWAs lodged under Work Choices have reduced award conditions more than previously understood, and at a greater rate than pre-reform agreements, according to a new analysis of OEA data by Griffith University IR Professor David Peetz.
A Government-dominated federal parliamentary inquiry into work and family balance has recommended a new a new investigation of the effects of AWAs and Work Choices on working families and reviving the five-yearly IR survey that was conducted until 1995.
Labor leader Kevin Rudd has not yet announced which portfolios he will allocate to his new frontbench team, but Shadow IR Minister Stephen Smith looks likely to lose IR, with new Deputy Leader Julia Gillard the front-runner to replace him.
