Fair Pay Commission to run second public consultation tomorrow; Submissions due for Queensland Work Choices inquiry next week; Demoted Navy officer wins 50% costs order for discrimination; Work Choices a bonanza for Jackson Wells Morris, Colmar Brunton; AIRC to move Melbourne HQ in September; Federal politicians' pay up 7% from July 1; and ABC to start filming waterfront dispute mini-series next week.
Unions today lost their first fully-argued application for a secret ballot to take strike action under Work Choices, in a test case on the new law's genuine bargaining requirements.
Norwegian-based shipping group Stolt is pursuing 11 seafarers for unlawful industrial action after dropping its prosecution of maritime unions over the crew's refusal to unload a ship's cargo in Hobart in protest against plans to replace them with cheap foreign labour, according to unions.
The Queensland IR Court has ruled that a non-profit church-owned corporation that runs a number of schools is a trading corporation, rendering it immune from the State's IR laws.
A nightclub owner has lost an appeal against damages awarded over an assault committed "for no apparent reason" by one of its bouncers, in a decision that reinforces the vicarious liability of employers who approve the use of force by security workers.
The ACTU executive meeting in Melbourne today will consider recommendations from a union study tour to support laws giving workers the right to a collective agreement if it is supported by a majority of employees in a workplace, coupled with "last resort" arbitration where bargaining breaks down.
AWU Queensland branch secretary Bill Ludwig has today written to the Office of Workplace Services, warning that the luxury Hayman Island Resort's proposed non-union Work Choices deal might not have met the statutory requirement that it be readily accessible to employees.
A former senior advisor with a broking firm has lost more than $90,000 in long service leave and notice pay after an appeal by the employer overturned his claim of constructive dismissal.
In what is believed to be the first unfair dismissal costs ruling under Work Choices, the AIRC's Vice President Michael Lawler has exercised his discretion to refuse costs, partly because he gave the wrong advice to the sacked employee.
In an embarrassing bungle for the ABCC, the Federal Court has thrown out a further attempt to prosecute a construction manager for alleged coercion, while giving the watchdog a final chance to amend its case against the manager's employer.