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).
Tensions in the senior ranks of the FWC have again entered the public domain with the resignation of Vice President Graeme Watson, effective from the end of next month.
Australia's two biggest employer groups have joined forces with the ACTU to ask the Turnbull Government to scrap mandatory four-yearly reviews of awards.
The CPSU and Department of Border Protection return to the FWC next week for conciliation of their draft workplace determination, while employees of three APS agencies have again rejected offers.
FWC President Iain Ross has today refused Employment Minister Michaelia Cash's request that he constitute a full bench to review Deputy President Jeff Lawrence's decision to grant CEPU NSW postal & telecommunications branch secretary Jim Metcher an entry permit.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
Key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon will push for a security of payments working group in return for supporting the Turnbull Government's legislation to re-establish the ABCC.
As debate resumed on the ABCC legislation in the Senate this morning, the Greens introduced into the House a bill to protect loadings and penalty rates for weekend and night work, while Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten presented legislation to further restrict the use of 457 visas.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has indicated that she will pursue domestic violence allegations against CEPU leader Jim Metcher in the Fair Work Commission.
