The national secretary of the CFMEU's forestry division, Trevor Smith, has defended as above-board the $4m training package the Prime Minister committed to on the eve of last year's federal election, and said it was negotiated by industry, not the union.
A self-confessed "touchy-feely guy" has failed to overturn his dismissal for sexually harassing male and female employees he supervised at a Victorian Government juvenile justice facility, but his employer hasn’t got off scot-free, with the AIRC recommending it remedy a pervasive inappropriate culture.
Shadow IR Minister Stephen Smith says the five-year second wave transitional arrangements revealed by the Nationals will force small businesses to choose whether to incorporate for IR reasons, or stay unincorporated for tax reasons.
The AIRC has approved two certified agreements with relatively non-restrictive right of entry clauses, accepting parties' assurances that the isolation of the sites covered created its own restraints.
Parties to the Victorian construction template agreement have completed revisions to bring it into line with the latest changes to the implementation guidelines for the national construction code, while the ABCC has begun a recruitment campaign to move it towards full operational strength.
The Prime Minister welcomed him to Canberra as a fellow Conservative traveller, but today the Federal Government used its Senate majority to defeat a bid by Family First Senator Steve Fielding to establish a Senate inquiry into overtime and penalty rate issues.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow will this afternoon in Washington meet the head of the IMF to follow up a letter of complaint the union movement made to the Fund over its support for the Federal Government's second-wave IR plans.
The Small Business Union - the country's second largest producer of AWAs - has withdrawn from the OEA's specified industry partner program, after writing to Employment Advocate Peter McIlwain expressing extreme dissatisfaction with both him and his office.
Just days after the ABCC's inception, the Federal Court has thrown out its predecessor's prosecution of major construction company Multiplex for alleged coercion of a subcontractor.
In the wake of the union campaign against key aspects of the Howard Government's second wave IR plans, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrew announced today that he will remove the OEA's compliance function and hand it to the low-profile Office of Workplace Services, which will double its inspector numbers.
