Former NSW ETU leader Bernie Rordan says he was warned that litigation by a fellow union secretary could prevent his appointment to the Fair Work Commission in 2012.
The Senate committee inquiring into the federal government's bargaining bill has handed down a report free of any recommendations to improve it, with Coalition senators wanting it passed without amendment and Labor and the Greens calling for its rejection.
There are "promising" early results from a 12-month pilot program that is seeking to speed-up the appeals process in the FWC and reduce parties' costs, according to the tribunal's president, Justice Iain Ross.
With Employment Minister Eric Abetz signalling he intends to cold-call, rather than advertise, to fill Fair Work Commission vacancies, the AMMA is today arguing it is people with employer backgrounds whose numbers he should be dialling.
In a move that the government has dismissed as a political stunt, the ACTU has told Employment Minister Eric Abetz he should suspend his IR legislative agenda for at least a year to enable the Heydon trade union inquiry and the Productivity Commission Fair Work Act review to run their course.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has acknowledged that the initial April 2015 deadline for the Productivity Commission's IR review is now unrealistic and has also indicated he might not respond to the road safety remuneration tribunal review this year.
In the first real IR test of the post-July 1 Senate's precarious balance of power, Palmer United Party senators voted with their Coalition colleagues last night to preserve, by one vote, the rights of the WA government and third parties to ask the Fair Work Commission to terminate damaging industrial action.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz says that no formal decision has been made to create an appeal jurisdiction for the Fair Work Commission, despite Prime Minister Tony Abbott flagging his personal support for the plan.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has declared that a frozen wage is better than no job, while refusing to comment on pay freeze deals being struck by individual employers.