Some 11,000 workers at BlueScope Steel Limited (formerly BHP Steel) will be eligible to apply for up to 200 free shares offered under a new share ownership plan announced as part of the company's yearly results last week.
Government counters attacks on Abbott; AIRC says "all or nothing" approach to sick leave provision not the best; Union rights clause prevents deal's certification despite links to other provisions; and UK think tank recommends workplace elder care.
The AIRC has terminated the bargaining period for teachers at Catholic schools in the Northern Territory, after finding that the parties' were unlikely to resolve a battle over workload regulation and revised dispute resolution processes.
Employers will have to be more careful to avoid unlawfully discriminating against employees because they are union members, after a Federal Court ruling substantially extended the definition of union membership under the WR Act's freedom of association provisions.
The ETU is seeking to flow-on across the labour hire sector in Victoria a deal hammered out with Skilled Engineering that doesn't mention the 36-hour week but effectively commits to bringing it in by February 2006.
In a major development in WA, the AMWU and CFMEU (construction division) have put aside years of damaging brawling to reach an agreement on coverage. The CFMEU, at the same time, has struck a deal with Woodside over its bid to get onto the giant North West Shelf gas project, meaning the Federal Court right of entry case that was due to start on Monday is off.
Boral has joined the ranks of publicly listed companies facing union-initiated shareholder campaigns, with the TWU (NSW branch) planning to put up six resolutions – covering OH&S and executive remuneration – to its October annual general meeting.
A full bench of the AIRC has found that a clause in an enterprise agreement requiring an employer to contact unemployed AMWU or CFMEU members first when hiring new workers was not "objectionable" under the Workplace Relations Act.
In an instructive ruling for employers, a NSW tribunal has found a licenced club vicariously liable for the sexually harassment of a female worker, after finding management's failure to act gave her male colleague "a virtual green light" to harass her.
