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The proportion of male employees entitled to paid paternity leave has doubled in the four years to 2005, according to a new survey of medium to large employers by the Equal Opportunity Agency.

The Howard Government's world-first Independent Contractors Bill - to be introduced late this month or early next - will continue the owner-driver protections that exist in NSW and Victoria, import unfair contracts provisions from the Workplace Relations Act and provide three-year transitional arrangements for employees "deemed" to be employees under state IR laws, according to Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews.

UPS discriminated by refusing to hire Rastafarian because of his beard, say US EEOC; Employer discriminated against worker when it sacked her because of asthma, says UK tribunal; Walking the talk: UK IR Minister says his past two departmental heads have worked part-time; and Property business sacked worker due to her pregnancy, says tribunal.

Federal Government financial assistance for workers pursuing unfair dismissal claims will be limited to employees on average weekly earnings of $915.70 ($47,745 a year) unless they can qualify for "special consideration," according to details of the program released on Friday.

The University of Queensland sacked a senior IR academic because of its "brutal" strategy to downgrade teaching of the discipline, rather than because of his trade union activity or political beliefs, a tribunal has found.

In one of the first big retail deals the SDA has struck under Work Choices, David Jones will pay its 10,000 employees a 6.1% pay rise over two years, lift severance pay entitlements and allow workers to take up to three sick days a year without certification.

The Australian manufacturing sector will generate a quarter of its economic activity offshore by 2008, which, when combined with other pressures such as competition from low-cost countries, could lead to job losses totalling 30,000 over the next 12 months alone, according to the AiG.

Major building owners, managers and cleaning contractors will be pressured to adopt a union code of principles as part of an international campaign for cleaners' wages and conditions launched by the LHMU today.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews has, as expected, responded to employer concerns about the onerous new record-keeping requirements imposed by Work Choices, announcing today that no hours records would have to be kept for workers earning more than $55,000 annually and lacking an overtime entitlement, and that daily start and finish times would not have to be recorded for other employees not entitled to overtime.

A tribunal has found that it was sexual harassment for an employer to tell his receptionist that he loved her and wanted her and her children to move in with him.