Howard Government engaging in “fiction” with claims unfair dismissal bill rejected 40 times, says independent report; ACTU planning national community-based protest on October 25; Employers increasingly using non-wage benefits to attract workers, says RBA; Court says there are limits to labour suppliers' OHS responsibilities; PM's favoured academic says social policy favouring working women over homemakers; New primer on the child care tax rebate; and Della Bosca asks NSW IRC to flow on federal work and family test case ruling.
The Opposition has used Parliament's first day back after the winter break to exploit the confusion the Federal Government has created over its second wave laws, drawing different answers to the same question on minimum conditions from the Prime Minister, John Howard, and his new Deputy, Mark Vaile.
With the Federal Government's sweeping second-wave proposals encompassing key planks of its original Cole-based bill, the construction industry legislation due to be introduced into Parliament this week is expected to be a slimmed down version of the November 2003 legislation.
As the Howard Government prepares to hand approval of all AWAs and agreements to the OEA, a court has raised doubts about its application of the no disadvantage test, saying it was "troubling" that more than 50 AWAs had been approved in the same terms as one that paid an Adelaide school student 25% less than her minimum award entitlement.
Alongside its decision today to give employees a UK-style right to request extra unpaid parental leave and to return to work part-time, the AIRC has also introduced a new obligation for employers to communicate with employees who are absent on parental leave about any significant change to their job.
In what is likely to be an historic last test case decision on awards, an AIRC full bench has today mostly refused an ACTU claim for extra rights to help workers accommodate their family responsibilities.
The BCA has renewed its push for the removal of fairness as the basis for the federal IR system, saying Australia could be the third wealthiest country in the world in 20 years if it pursues IR and other changes.
The Howard Government's second wave IR changes have moved closer to a High Court challenge as state and federal ministers ruled out any compromise at today's Workplace Relations Ministerial Council meeting in Melbourne.
Seven years after they were blacklisted then sacked, the 16 Blair Athol coal miners at the heart of one of the bitter coal battles of the late 1990s are set to be compensated under a settlement reached between Rio Tinto and the CFMEU (mining & energy division).
