Six months grace from prosecutions for record-keeping breaches, says ACCI; No doctor required for three month's sick leave under Work Choices: AMA; Preview version of renumbered Workplace Relations Act now available; AIRC lacks jurisdiction to hear dispute over employee entitlements' bond; $150,000 worth of promised shares awarded to axed Adsteam executive; and Failure to store employee records on secure computer catches Government agency: Privacy Commission.
Alcoa today lost a bid for orders against a 48-hour bargaining strike at its Portland Aluminium smelter in Victoria after the AIRC accepted assurances from the ETU and the AMWU that they would not try to involve contractors in the stoppage.
A labour hire employee who refused to move from a long-term placement to another host employer has lost an unfair dismissal claim, but the NSW IRC hasn't ruled out the possibility that such an employee could have an implied term in their employment contract giving them a right to stay with the host.
Clayton Utz partner Graham Smith has warned that owners of transmitted businesses face big penalties under Work Choices if they fail to comply with new requirements to notify transmitted employees about their employment status, while Lander & Rogers partner Mark Sullivan said the new processes for authorising industrial action could create a four-week delay and give employers the upper hand.
While Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today rejected suggestions that low-wage employees would be disadvantaged by regulations allowing minimum wage averaging, practitioners also raised concerns that salary sacrificing for the low-paid could be abused.
AWAs made under Work Choices that authorise extra hours but eradicate overtime pay could contravene the new minimum AFPC standard, according to a Sydney barrister.
The Federal Court has upheld a ruling that the CFMEU's WA construction branch and two officials should pay a total of $8,500 in penalties for breaching the no extra claims clause in a construction agreement, despite union claims that the workers went on strike against its advice.
Unions are likely to find ways to circumvent the new ban on providing unfair dismissal remedies in agreements, while the results of next year's NSW election could be the key to whether a truly national IR system can get up, Flinders University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart told a Sydney conference today. He also explained how next week's re-numbering of the Workplace Relations Act would work.
Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews today rejected attacks by the ACTU and ALP on the new Regulations to the Work Choices Act as "hysterical outbursts" and "absurd claims."
The Regulations released today for the Howard Government's Work Choices IR changes outlaw a wide range of provisions in agreements, including any that prohibit AWAs, fail to pertain to the employment relationship, or allow union right of entry.
