Editor: Rajiv Maharaj, (03) 8684 2139, rajiv.maharaj@thomsonreuters.com . Journalist: Steve Andrew. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Twitter: @WorkforceTR
Editorial team
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Telstra to sack 1,100
Unions will hold a further meeting with Telstra next week in an attempt to head off the company's decision to axe 1,100 operations jobs. A meeting between the company and its three key unions - the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) and the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers (...
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FWC issues s418 order after Holden workers walk off job in Vic
The Fair Work Commission late yesterday (November 14) issued a s418 stop industrial action order after hundreds of Holden employees walked off the job in Melbourne earlier that day. The workers at Holden's Port Melbourne engine walked out in protest against company plans to cap redundancy payments at 52 weeks for 30 forcibly retrenched workers. Hol...
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Review bench stands by holiday arrangement
The Modern Awards Review Bench has stuck by the wording of an interim arrangement covering 2013 Christmas and New Year part-day public holidays in South Australia, despite concerns raised by Australian Business Industrial (ABI). The interim arrangement will now remain in place until after the finalisation of the 2014 Modern Awards Review. ABI said ...
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MBC's Butler set for Rudd's seat
Industrial relations lawyer Terri Butler has confirmed to Workforce Daily she will seek ALP selection to contest the Brisbane seat of Griffith, which will be up for grabs in a by-election following Kevin Rudd's decision to quit Federal Parliament.
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Unfair dismissal claims surge past 4,000 in three-month period
WFD: Disputation appears on the rise with unfair dismissal claim numbers hitting a record high from July to September while general protection claims continued to surge and bargaining bounced back up. The Fair Work Commission's latest quarterly figures reveal unfair dismissal claims shot up from their previous high of 3,911 in the April to June qua...
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Full bench objects to 'deliberately non-compliant' registration bid
WFD: A Fair Work Commission full bench has quashed Vice President Graham Watson's dismissal of "technical" objections to a new employer group's "seriously irregular" registration application, which did not include its actual rules or its correct name. In July this year, VP Watson rejected the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation's appl...
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Adverse action litigant secures $500K plus from online bookie
WFD: In a scathing judgment, the Federal Court has ordered an online betting company to pay a sales rep more than half a million dollars in damages and penalties for multiple general protections breaches, including threatening to fire her if she went to a lawyer to pursue her underpayment claims. Handing down his penalties judgment that also includ...
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Symantec sees off another maternity leave adverse action claim
WFD: Symantec has won its second adverse action case in a row against a claim that it retrenched a worker for taking parental leave. In July, Federal Circuit Court Judge Tom Altobelli ruled the company did not take adverse action against a female manager it laid off just days before she was to take nine months' maternity leave ( WF18745 ) . Now the...
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FWC plots changes for default super fund reviews
WFD: Fair Work Commission (FWC) President Justice Iain Ross has detailed the cmn's various reviews of default superannuation clauses in modern awards, including the removal of any default funds not offering a MySuper product. As part of FWC's transitional review of modern awards, a full bench will hear applications to include additional default sup...
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FWC issues stop order against 'discriminatory' industrial action
WFD: The Fair Work Commission has terminated the National Tertiary Education Union's partial results ban for offshore students after finding it was "inherently discriminatory", which the protected action ballot had not specified. Commissioner Nick Wilson did not make a definitive ruling on whether the Fair Work Act allowed discriminatory industrial...
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AWX fails in appeal claim refugee workers should be paid less
WFD: A Fair Work Commission full bench has rejected an abattoir labour hire firm's argument it should make a special case for its enterprise agreement (EA) because it stopped its mainly asylum seeker workforce from entering the black market. AWX Pty Ltd had appealed Commissioner Chris Simpson's decision to terminate its 2006-09 Work Choices EA, whi...
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Judge calls for pay protections for 'vulnerable' security guards
Improved tendering, work and education processes are needed to better protect security industry employees from underpayments, a Federal Circuit Court judge has warned. Imposing fines of $108k and $21k respectively on a NSW security firm and its owner for underpaying seven workers, Judge Kenneth Raphael said award rates in the industry were "barely ...
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No 'arguable case' in NTEU 'discriminatory' appeal
WFD: The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has failed to stay an order to stop its "discriminatory" industrial action at RMIT University after the Fair Work Commission found most its appeal grounds did not have a reasonable prospect of success. The NTEU appealed against Commissioner Nick Wilson's decision that found its partial results ban f...
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Ports operator calls for IR reform
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) has dismissed calls by Australia's largest national rail freight and ports operator for further reform of Australia industrial relations system. MUA assistant secretary Ian Bray told Workforce it was "no surprise" Asciano chief Martin Broomhead was "yet again talking up" the need for reform. "The same mob was u...
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CPSU says community services reform report code for outsourcing
WFD: The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has slammed a Victorian Government-commissioned report on reforming the delivery of public sector community services as "code" for outsourcing jobs to the private sector. The report - Service Sector Reform: A roadmap for community and human services reform - was written by Professor Peter Shergold, ...
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Flood gates begin to open following ACE 'independent contractor' ruling
WFD: Combined Insurance Company of America's (CICA) attempts to shield itself from the consequences of a Federal Court ruling that its independent contractors were in fact employees appear to have failed. Last Friday (November 8), Justice Nye Perram allowed a former CICA insurances sales agent and "independent contractor" Marion Fox, who had worked...
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Wage growth drops to record lows
Wage growth trends reached their lowest levels on record in the year to September, with growth continuing to slow for the fifth consecutive quarter. The latest ABS wage price index shows wages growth across all sectors was at 2.6% on a trend basis in the year to Sept. That is the lowest since the measure began in 2000. Wages for both private and pu...
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Diary
3rd Annual Ron McCallum Debate - ‘Should the IR pendulum swing again? ' November 28, Swissotel, Sydney. Details here .
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$100k payout for cafe worker sexually harassed - and sacked
The Federal Circuit Court has ordered a café manager to pay $24,300 to a female worker he sexually harassed and the owner to pay $75,000 after he sacked her when she complained. Vicki Alexander complained that Nick Vekiarellis harassed her including by touching her and saying she would get more shifts if she had sex with him. He continued the behav...
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