The proposed 20-employee threshold for exempting small businesses from federal unfair dismissal laws is too high and five employees would be a more appropriate limit, while Electrolux shows the High Court has lost its understanding of labour law, according to Sydney University Dean of Law Ron McCallum.
In an important decision on pregnancy and family responsibility discrimination, the Federal Magistrates Court has found that Qantas discriminated against a senior flight attendant when it refused her access to her accrued sick leave because she was pregnant, not sick.
A Federal Court full bench has found an AIRC full bench wrongly reversed the reinstatement of 16 mineworkers selected for redundancy after a Rio Tinto subsidiary blacklisted them because they supported the coal mining union and opposed AWAs.
Woolworths' success in obtaining an injunction to prevent a former senior executive from moving to Franklins has reinforced employers' powers to restrain key staff.
Corporations should implement affirmative action policies in the workplace, even if female employees are against it, ANZ chief executive John McFarlane said today.
In an important decision on carers' responsibilities, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal has found that a transport company indirectly discriminated against its former manager when it rejected her request to return to work part-time after having a baby.
Working parents would receive 10 hours a week of free care for each child aged three to four, childcare trainees would receive bonuses for completing their training and a plan would be developed to boost wages for childcare workers, under a Latham Labor Government.