In a landmark ruling on casual employment, a Federal Court full bench has found two regularly-rostered workers to be casuals because they were engaged on that basis.
The LHMU has used the Workplace Relations Act's anti-coercion provisions to win an interlocutory injunction restraining Coca-Cola Amatil from contracting out up to 50 jobs at its Clayton warehouse in Melbourne.
While Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith was this morning extolling the potential benefits of IR life under the Constitution's corporations power, one of Australia's leading labour lawyers was issuing a warning that heading down that path was unlikely to reduce the existing system's cost or complexity.
The labour hire industry will know in a little more than three months whether it will face the threat of hostile new regulations in New South Wales, after the State Government revealed the membership and terms of reference of its industry taskforce.
More than 100,000 managers and financial executives across a range of industries - including IR/HR, property services, accounting, consulting and mining - will in future have their minimum pay rates prescribed by awards and be covered by federal unfair dismissal laws for the first time following the registration of a new union.
Hundreds of CFMEU (mining & energy division) delegates will tomorrow march on the IRC's Sydney headquarters to protest against the Commission's decision to allow 10-hour shifts and, according to the union, to effectively freeze wages in the coal industry award.
In its landmark CFMEU judgment, the High Court majority has opened the way for Parliament to prescribe the content of awards without infringing constitutional limitations under s51(xxxv).
The CFMEU (mining & energy division) has lost its High Court challenge to the Federal Government's award simplification provisions, with four of the seven judges finding WR Minister Peter Reith's laws were constitutional.
Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith plans to reintroduce his bill - rejected twice in the Government's last term - to exempt small businesses from unfair dismissal claims.
After sharing record profits with its employees under the terms of the current enterprise agreement, media giant Fairfax has told its workers it wants to end its profit-sharing scheme.
