Labour hire maintenance contractors at a Victorian steel plant have won a guaranteed 36-hour week under a landmark deal between Adecco subsidiary TAD and the AWU.
A surgeons' association had failed in its bid to become a fully-fledged union, with the AIRC today dismissing its registration application because of flaws in its rules.
Victorian unions and employers have agreed to seek a full flow-on of this year's safety net ruling to workers covered by Schedule 1A of the Workplace Relations Act, and to push for the increase to be brought forward by nine days.
Negotiations over a new agreement for 600 manufacturing workers at Bridgestone have stalled, while maintenance employees at the company have struck their first ever non-union deal.
The AIRC has allowed a herbal medicine company to vary its s170LK agreement to help it survive a downturn in business, even though the changes would result in several workers taking a pay cut.
Labour market deregulation is one of seven major reforms in the past 20 years that have been crucial to Australia's recent economic stability, Reserve Bank Governor Ian Macfarlane told a Business Council of Australia Dinner last night.