The Australian Nursing Federation has made the first application to the AIRC for a secret ballot to authorise industrial action under the Work Choices legislation.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet and the lawyer who used the old Workplace Relations Act to stymie the mass retrenchment of Patrick's wharfies have today pointed to the Cowra abattoir case as an example of the perils facing workers employed by companies intent on installing a cheaper replacement workforce.
The Federal Court has fined the Southern Cross Clothing company $110,550 for breaches of the Clothing Trades Award, prompting calls from the TCFU for garment outworkers to be exempted from the forthcoming Independent Contractors Act.
Minister's AWA statement misleading, says CPSU; IR hurting Coalition, brawling hurting ALP, poll finds; AIRC joins Federal Government as Jackson Wells Morris client; and Five more years on Reserve Bank board for waterfront warrior.
Unions could make legislated collective bargaining rights a policy priority, with a high-level delegation to soon conduct a study tour of the US, Canada and Great Britain to examine their systems for guaranteeing such rights, according to ACTU secretary Greg Combet.
The ABCC will press its application to intervene in one of the first cases against industrial action under the Work Choices Act next week, after the AIRC declined to formally deal with the matter yesterday.
The ALP and CPSU say the Federal Government is failing to live up to its own rhetoric on choice of agreement, after a Treasury body offered AWAs to its employees, despite almost 90% of them petitioning for a collective deal.
Construction head contractor John Holland has engaged a dozen employees under a new Work Choices employer greenfields deal for a major BHP Billiton port expansion project in the Pilbara.
The AIRC today recommended a return to work in one of the first cases against industrial action under Work Choices, in which unions sought to rely on State OHS laws and the ABCC unsuccessfully sought to intervene.
