The Productivity Commission's (PC) tight timeframe for its workplace relations inquiry means it risks perpetuating Australia's deep-seated policy instability on labour law, a leading workplace relations researcher has warned. Sydney University Professor John Buchanan's submission to the PC inquiry noted labour law reform in Australia had been one o...
‘The world has moved on': PC must go beyond decades-old IR debate
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Time left in job formula gave inadequate compo: FWC
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has departed from the Sprigg formula - calculating unfair dismissal compensation based on an estimate of a worker's time left in a job - on grounds it gave inadequate compensation to an employee who missed out on transferring to a new business due to her unfair dismissal. James Jones t/a The Pet Cemetery & Cremato...
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Record inequality sees ACTU pitch $27 min rate rise
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is calling for a $27 a week increase in the minimum wage to $667.90 per week, ie from $16.87 to $17.58 per hour, equal to a 4.2% rise. The ACTU dollar increase is the same as it made last year, with similar arguments including rising labour productivity and the gap between average wage earnings and the ...
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Employer's belief trumps facts in failed adverse action case
The Federal Court has rejected the adverse action claim of a union lodge president sacked after he took leave with a sick note, despite finding the worker was in fact sick (WF 30/5/2014). The court accepted the decision-maker sacked him believing his decision to get a sick note was a ploy to get off work after the company refused him annual leave. ...
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ATO backs down over EA vote
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has reversed its decision to take its proposed enterprise agreement (EA) to a vote, after concerns it would be rejected by its workforce. The decision comes as public sector industrial action intensifies, with a protected action ballot order (PABO) issued for the ATO, action approved at the employment department...
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Unions call for expulsion of ‘anti-worker' Martin Ferguson
Victorian unions have called for former federal minister and Australian Council of Trade Union president Martin Ferguson to be expelled from the Labor Party over what they say is his ‘anti-worker' stance on union regulation and electricity privatisation. On Friday (March 27) the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) executive unanimously backe...
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Accidental SMS no excuse for describing boss as ‘complete dick'
An office administrator was not unfairly dismissed for accidentally sending a text message to her boss describing him as a “complete dick”, with the Fair Work Commission finding the text was serious misconduct. One of two employees at mineral exploration company Dragon Mountain Gold, Louise Nesbitt, mistakenly sent the text intended for...
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Editorial Team
Editor: David Marin-Guzman, (02) 8587 7682, david.marin-guzman@thomsonreuters.com . ChiefJournalist: Paul Karp. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Twitter: @WorkforceTR
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Govt stresses caution over min wage with inequality ‘stabilised'
The Federal Government has argued this year's minimum wage panel should take into account the repeal of the carbon tax repeal and data suggesting income inequality had “stabilised”. The govt's submission to the 2014-15 annual wage review stressed the review was taking place at a time of “significant transformation” in the Au...
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Termination does not ‘automatically' prevent bullying order: bench
A Fair Work Commission full bench has confirmed the cmn has no jurisdiction to make anti-bullying orders when an applicant's contract is terminated prior to a decision and there is no evidence bullying would continue to be a risk to the applicant at work. Dr Olusegun Obatoki had appealed Deputy President Anthony Kovacic's dismissal of his bullying ...
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McManus leaves ASU for ACTU campaigning job
Australian Services Union (ASU) NSW & ACT branch secretary Sally McManus has announced she will leave the ASU to take up a campaigning job at the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), and aim to become one of its vice presidents in May. On March 25 McManus announced she would not seek re-election as ASU NSW sec since the ACTU had offered h...
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Senate committee to consider FWBC power extension
The Bill extending the Fair Work Building and Construction's (FWBC) coercive powers has been referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Education and Employment. The committee is accepting submissions until April 10 and will report by May 8. Employment minister Senator Eric Abetz introduced the Bill on March 25. It will extend FWBC's powers to co...
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Late return to work not industrial action
Private prison operator G4S would not have been paying strike pay to a union delegate who returned to work one minute after a protected stop-work meeting finished because his actions in that time could not be characterised as industrial action (WF 19/3/2015) . Federal Circuit Court Judge Justin Smith delivered reasons for his decision made earlier ...
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Editorial Team
Editor: David Marin-Guzman, (02) 8587 7682, david.marin-guzman@thomsonreuters.com . ChiefJournalist: Paul Karp. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Twitter: @WorkforceTR
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Court condemns MUA closed shop with record payout
The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and a labour supplier have been ordered to pay more than $800k to two workers whom it prevented from being hired as cleaners on an offshore platform in WA due to a ‘closed shop' arrangement with the employer. Federal Court Justice John Gilmour dismissed most of the union arguments in determining it should...
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‘You're all special': minister grants visas to offshore vessel workers
Assistant immigration minister Senator Michaelia Cash has intervened to allow workers on offshore oil and gas vessels to continue to work without visas, which require Australian conditions of employment, by making a declaration they are all taken to have Special Purpose Visas (SPVs). Non-Australian workers in the offshore oil and gas sector were th...
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Cmr Ryan's disobedience ‘of concern': bench
A Fair Work Commission (FWC) full bench has reaffirmed that a proposed scope order must at least allow for “fairer or more efficient” bargaining, while also expressing concern that Commissioner John Ryan deliberately went against bench authority on the issue. The bench quashed Cmr Ryan's decision that the Fair Work Act required only tha...
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Competition review cracks down on EA regulation of contractors
The ACCC should have the right to intervene in Fair Work Commission (FWC) cases to police broader competition laws rendering unlawful agreement clauses that restrict engagement of contractors and labour hire. The Harper competition review panel made the recommendation in its final report , handed down yesterday (March 31). The ACCC's proposed incre...
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Expand collective bargaining rights: ACTU
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has argued for an expansion of collective bargaining rights, including broadening it from the enterprise level to allow pattern bargaining across industries and along supply chains, and removing almost all restrictions on enterprise agreement content. The ACTU made the case in a 466-page set of submissi...
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Pacific island bullying claim out of jurisdiction: FWC
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has rejected a stop-bullying order application from an Australian volunteer in the Pacific island of Kiribati, finding the location of his work and the identity of his employer meant it was beyond its jurisdiction. Even so, the cmn held the employer's management actions - including a warning - were reasonable “o...
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