SA IRC launches inquiry into Work Choices, IC laws; Most professional women childless: survey; Lack of childcare cited by 82,700 people not in labour force: ABS; Federal ALP would extend owner driver exemptions; CFMEU fined $9,000 for FOA breaches; Submissions deadline on Friday for minimum pay review; Harper to address National Press Club; ABC releases "sneak peek" of waterfront dispute drama; OWS chasing more underpayments; Correction to OWS article; and Founders not in agreement over corporations power, says Chief Justice.
Unions have responded to Work Choices' sanctions against industrial action with a three-pronged strategy: making themselves a small target, protecting their assets, and outsourcing industrial action to their members and supporters, according to Melbourne industrial barrister Stuart Wood.
Former Commonwealth Bank head of people services, Les Cupper, has urged HR practitioners to abandon "HR-speak" and adopt the language of business, or face being increasingly marginalised.
On the first anniversary of Work Choices, the Coalition's IR laws today dominated federal politics - on the airwaves, in Parliament and in both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader's party room addresses.
The LHMU today applied for an urgent Federal Court injunction to stop security company Securecorp from using a new corporate structure to shift the employment of security guards onto a non-union agreement.
The ACTU has launched a new anti-Work Choices TV advertisement on the first anniversary of the laws and released opinion poll results finding 69% of voters agree that individual contracts give too much power to employers, while 24% disagree.
Labor's IR plan would drop the ball on economic reform; Howard responds, after Rudd and Gillard seek guarantee of no HEWRRs-style IR drive in public health; Fielding legislation seeks to reinstate conditions deleted by Work Choices; Sky hasn't fallen and no turning back clock, says BCA; ACTU report merely recycling old news, says ACCI; Work Choices defying critics, says Ridout; and OWS issues new fact sheet on infringement notices, as March 27 looms.
The CFMEU has been fined $20,000, ordered to destroy its delegates' code of conduct forms and place newspaper advertisements on freedom of association rights after being found guilty by the Federal Court of making false statements about workers' obligations to join the union.
An ACTU report released today on the first year of Work Choices emphasises downward pressure on wages – especially for retail and hospitality workers – and disputes Federal Government claims about employment and productivity improvements.
59% of voters nationally - including 25% of Coalition voters - oppose the Work Choices changes, according to an AC Nielsen opinion poll released to mark the first anniversary of the laws.
