The Federal Court has cleared the way for a discrimination claim to proceed against Hawker de Havilland Aerospace Pty Ltd, with unions alleging the company directed bonus payments from a Boeing group share trust scheme only to non-members.
The Federal Government has this morning denied that delaying the new Fair Pay Commission's first wage determination until Spring next year would effectively result in a wage freeze for award workers.
The Building Industry Taskforce will have new powers to compel individuals in the construction industry to attend interviews, divulge information and hand over documents, after the Senate yesterday finally allowed new guidelines for the powers to take effect. Those who defy the Taskforce face penalties or up to six months behind bars.
With two federal Coalition senators already expressing concerns about the Government's second-wave plans, state shadow IR ministers will tomorrow afternoon get their turn to put their views to Federal Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews.
The NSW and WA industrial tribunals have flowed-on to state award workers the $17 weekly wage rise handed down in the AIRC’s safety net review on June 7.
Today is the last day the Coalition has to rely on Democrats' IR spokesperson, Senator Andrew Murray, to get its legislation through Parliament. He warns, however, against farewelling him finally from the IR sphere of influence.
PM John Howard has today ruled out increasing standard weekly working hours to 40 a week, while Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews says his second wave IR legislation will simplify minimum requirements for AWAs so much that they could be as short as one page.
The "double shift" borne by women who combine paid work with a disproportionate amount of domestic tasks is likely to become a "triple shift" as they have to also take on elder care, Sex Discrimination Commission Pru Goward warned today as she launched a new discussion paper on better sharing of paid and unpaid work between men and women.
The ACTU today, in response to criticism from Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews, said it wouldn't be withdrawing its television commercials that seek to highlight the potential effects of the Federal Government's second wave IR plans on employees, while it labelled the Minister a hypocrite for allegedly breaching workplace laws in his own department.
