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A federal Labor Government would abolish the AIRC, the Fair Pay Commission, the Office of Workplace Services and the Office of the Employment Advocate, and replace them with an overarching IR office to be called Fair Work Australia.

No inflation pressure on wages, as CPI dips; Darrell Lea shelves AWAs; What AMMA wants from IR system; Delegate seeks first damages for employer's alleged breach of good faith obligation; ALP wants skilled migration to be faster and cleaner; Small business won't hire more because of Work Choices, says ALP; and MUA meets Maersk in Denmark.

In two separate "genuine operational reasons" decisions, the AIRC has found that a company did not breach Work Choices when it made an employee redundant then readvertised his job at a cheaper rate, while it also found that a firm that made its HR practitioner redundant acted lawfully.

The AMWU and CEPU have won orders for secret ballots for industrial action at CSBP's chemical operations at Kwinana and Albany in Western Australia despite company objections that the unions had not genuinely bargained by seeking fanciful claims.

A Rudd Labor Government would bring back the worst features of centralised wage-fixing, Prime Minister John Howard warned the Queensland Media Club yesterday, while Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson proposed a raft of new measures, including payroll tax harmonisation, to lift Australia's flagging labour productivity growth.

Labor's IR policies are not likely to threaten the low inflation environment, while wage pressures can be contained best by maintaining a strong flow of overseas migrants and encouraging education and training in skill-short areas, according to new analysis by Citigroup.

Shadow IR Minister Julia Gillard has rejected ACTU calls for more details of its IR policy to be included in the ALP platform to be decided at the party's national conference starting in Sydney on Friday.

The Fair Pay Commission is holding consultations on a process to publish legally-binding Australian Pay and Classification Scales, following industry criticism of the uncertainty resulting from its failure to publish the details after its first minimum wages decision last year.

AMWU refused appeal on internal elections dispute; ABCC wins FoA case after CFMEU admits pressure against non-union painters; Beattie warns local councils against using Work Choices; PC inquires into labour market; and Echoes of Blair in Rudd's industrial action pronouncements?

A court has today ordered optometry chain Merringtons to pay $88,000 in penalties for breaching Victorian retail awards.