The IR portfolio has been demoted in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's reshuffle this afternoon, with the role given to a new junior minister, Craig Laundy.
The ABCC has reviewed its legal expenditure after an "overspend" in the past financial year that included a blowout to almost $11 million in billings for external advice, representing about a third of its $34 million budget.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said last night that she made an offer to the Opposition to split-off into a separate Bill elements of the "four-yearly review" legislation that enable the FWC to overlook technical and minor errors in agreements, after tribunal president Iain Ross twice wrote asking her to urgently secure its passage.
The ABCC's in-house counsel has resigned after just weeks in the job, in order to "totally disassociate" himself from the actions of the watchdog's former leader, Nigel Hadgkiss.
The ROC has launched an inquiry into the HSU's Tasmanian branch over an alleged "termination payment" provided to former state secretary and current national secretary Chris Brown, while the CEPU has dismissed an ROC investigation into reporting breaches as a scare tactic.
The ROC has updated its Federal Court claims against the TWU after the union found a back-up of its Queensland membership database it said was lost when the outgoing state secretary made all the branch's employees redundant in 2010, but the watchdog says it lacks vital information about who could vote.
The new standalone regulator for registered organisations will start operating on Monday, May 1, with its new powers taking effect by the following day.
Hardline employer-clientele law firm Seyfarth Shaw developed an aggressive bargaining strategy for Victoria's Country Fire Authority that aimed to replace a culture of UFU "veto and control" with "consultation and influence", documents published by the Senate reveal.