Some 2,000 Xstrata Coal mineworkers returned to work last night after a 24-hour wildcat stoppage, while their union is today launching a Federal Court action over retrenchments at the company's Bulga mine.
A senior AIRC member has raised concerns about the risk of reduced public accountability if the Commission allows electronic hearings to expand. He also lambasted the Cole Royal Commission for its "beat-up" when it criticised the AIRC's agreement approval processes.
Some 450 Primus Telecom employees have won a six week paid maternity leave entitlement under a proposed new agreement, while 750 workers at another telco have struck an agreement that mirrors that of Telstra.
In an important ruling on the scope of NSW's s106 unfair contracts jurisdiction, the State's IRC has reduced the probationary period of an employee working under an AWA and awarded him $20,000, after finding no constitutional or other barriers to doing so.
Retailer David Jones and the SDA have agreed to allow both parents of a new baby to take 12 months of unpaid parental leave concurrently - a provision substantially above the eight weeks sought in the work and family test case announced by the ACTU last week.
Victoria's re-elected Bracks Government looks like being able to proceed with its plans to establish a new State IR system, after seemingly winning control of the State191s Upper House.
The AWU has wrapped up deals covering operators at Caltex's Kurnell refinery and Shell's Geelong plant, but operators at BP in Kwinana, WA, have voted down an agreement that would have put them at the top of the pack on wages but cut staffing to the bone.
