A major law firm says the FWC's first ruling on the merits of a bullying application should calm employers' fears about the new jurisdiction, claiming that the tribunal has adopted "an extremely broad" interpretation of the exemption for reasonable management action.
BHP Billiton has stepped up pressure over a bargaining deadlock involving tug boat crews in Port Hedland, warning it is “actively pursuing” legal options to prevent industrial action.
The need for employers to consider the individual circumstances of employees taking industrial action before they institute disciplinary action has been demonstrated in a FWC finding that a company unfairly dismissed a crane driver who belatedly joined an unlawful stop-work meeting.
The ACTU's bid to remove former senior public servant Tony Cole from this year's annual wage review has failed, after he told the peak body in a consultation hearing this morning that he would not step down because he was not a party to the Audit Commission's recommendation to reduce the minimum wage.
Australia has been named as a "country of concern" at the opening of the third congress of the International Trade Union Confederation in Berlin, along with more usual targets of criticism.
Pacific National was justified in sacking a long-serving train driver who was 120 seconds away from colliding with another train, after failing to see and respond to two signals, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A senior IR lawyer has told the HR Nicholls Society the Fair Work Act should be amended to ban protected industrial action that has serious consequences and to remove entirely the rights of high income earners to strike, in a presentation predicting the decline of the MUA's power and influence.
The ACTU's request for a member of the Fair Work Commission's minimum wage review panel to stand aside is expected to come to a head at a hearing in Melbourne tomorrow.
The body charged with reviewing the Fair Work Act has suggested that centralised wage-setting under awards might hamper the effectiveness of market signals and lead to artificially inflated pay rates, in a recently-released report on labour mobility in Australia.
The Abbott Government will introduce a four-year pause on increases to the superannuation guarantee from July 1, as it seeks to "provide business with certainty" over SG rises.
