At presstime, the Federal Government announced a slew of new appointments to the Fair Work Commission, including two leading industrial relations lawyers as the commission's new vice presidents. Clayton Utz head of workplace relations and Law Council of Australia president Joe Catanzariti and prominent union barrister Adam Hatcher SC will take on t...
Hatcher & Catanzariti new FWC VPs, Jeff Lawrence gets DP nod
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FW Act ‘costs shield' applies to ‘isolated' interlocutory applications
The Federal Magistrates Court has further defined the boundaries of the Fair Work Act's s570 so-called ‘costs shield', ruling it does apply to “isolated” interlocutory matters within substantive proceedings. Federal Magistrate Shenagh Barnes ruled s570 was “applicable to every part” of proceedings. Complainant tried to...
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ACTU push for $30 min wage hike
WFD: The Aust Council of Trade Unions has asked the Fair Work Commission for a $30-a-week national minimum wage (NMW) increase in its submission to the tribunal's annual wage review. The submission was not available at presstime. However, the peak union body confirmed it wants the tribunal to up the NMW to $636.40 a week - a 79 cent per hour increa...
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Bench quashes dispute order
A Fair Work Commission full bench has quashed a dispute order by a single commissioner - but upheld his original finding - after finding the matter should have been heard under transitional provisions of the Workplace Relations Act (WR Act) and not the Fair Work Act. The primary decision concerned a dispute as to whether Altus Traffic Pty Ltd emplo...
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Jobs growth offsetting income inequality
Strong increases in Australia's employment over the past 20 years have offset rising income inequality factors. The Productivity Commission's working paper Trends in the Distribution of Income in Australia found Australians' incomes had risen substantially in real terms. Average real labour incomes had increased by 40%, from $800 a week in 1988-89 ...
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FWC upholds managerial prerogative on urine testing
WFD: A Fair Work Commissioner has found that it was not unfair for a logistics company to sack a worker who refused a urine test in favour of an oral swab test to determine drug and alcohol misuse. Commissioner Bruce Williams' decision appears to contradict Senior Deputy President Jonathan Hamberger's Endeavour Energy landmark case last year that f...
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Holden 'bean counters cut too close to bone' re 500 jobs cull: AMWU
WFD: The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) will challenge Holden Australia's decision to cut 500 jobs in Victoria and South Australia saying the company's "bean counters" had "cut too close to the bone". AMWU vehicle division national secretary Dave Smith told Workforce Daily the union acknowledged Holden was facing challenging economic...
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Labour productivity gains not break from long-term trend: Willox
WFD: Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox has dismissed improvements in labour productivity over the last year and a half as just another periodic upturn and warned labour costs were outstripping any gains in productivity. Speaking at the Australian Mining Productivity and Competitiveness Summit on Tuesday (April 9), Willox said t...
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Fed Ct junks FWC bench decision no.2 against brain-damaged man
WFD: The Federal Court has quashed - for a second time - a Fair Work Commission full bench decision upholding the sacking of a brain-damaged gardener who claimed the tribunal had failed to give him a fair and just hearing. Clayton Utz lawyers took on Edward Warrell's case on a pro bono basis after three separate FW hearings - the primary decision a...
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Vic branch withdraws legal action following Mighell resignation
WFD: As the tension at the CEPU comms division heats up, the in-fighting within its electrical division has cooled down. Following controversial Vic branch secretary Dean Mighell's resignation on March 1, the Vic branch has withdrawn its various cases against the national division and NSW branch, including its challenge against union officials' per...
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Vic ETU still challenging voting rights of honorary members
WFD: The Victorian Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has got one iron left in the fire when it comes to its contest against the national branch, with the union maintaining legal pressure for an inquiry into the election of the national executive. New Vic branch secretary Troy Gray told Workforce Daily the branch had withdrawn its other intra-union lega...
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Political rivalries heat up in CEPU comms 'purge'
WFD: A suspected purge by the Communications Electrical Plumbing Union's national communications division has ended up in Fair Work Australia as union in-fighting boils over. State branch leaders backed national learning and development manager Tony Bridgman's unfair dismissal claim arguing recently elected national comms secretary Dan Dwyer had re...
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Tradies win stop-work pay as employer safety response 'passive'
WFD: The Fair Work Commission has found workers should be paid for not working in response to an uncertain health and safety situation, even if the risk was subsequently found to have no reasonable basis. Senior Deputy President Peter Richards delivered his highly conditional decision in relation to a dispute about electricians who stopped work at ...
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Employer knowledge of union status no bar to discipline
WFD: The Federal Court has dismissed a union's claim that a warning letter issued to one of its officials for attending a union management meeting without leave amounted to adverse action for a prohibited reason. The Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) alleged Rio Tinto subsidiary Bengalla Mining Company Pty Limited took adverse actio...
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Not-for-profit pays up after sacking workers with disabilities
An employer that aims to assists people with intellectual disabilities has settled the adverse action claims of five disabled employees that it says it sacked for business reasons. In September 2010, not-for-profit company Marriott Support Services told the five workers their shifts would be reduced to two and a half days a week before ceasing in J...
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FWC blasts lawyer over untrue dismissal claim
WFD: The Fair Work Commission has criticised a worker and his lawyer over their handling of an unfair dismissal claim, saying it was "wrong and improper for anyone, let alone a lawyer" to advance a "plainly untenable case which is based upon a falsehood". Tossing out the application, Commissioner Ian Cambridge said legal firm Connect Legal had cond...
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Unions take aim at donations reform
NSW unions have launched a High Court challenge to laws prohibiting them from making political donations, arguing they breach implied freedoms of association and political communication. The proceedings will challenge the constitutional validity of the amendments to the Election Funding Expenditure and Disclosures Act 1981 . In particular, it will ...
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Employer fails in full bench challenge to modern retail award
WFD: The "substantial character" of the trade or business of an employer determines whether it falls under modern award coverage, a Fair Work Commission full bench has affirmed. Where an enterprise has more than one character it is not necessary to decide which is predominant, but a character must be "substantial" before it can ground a conclusion ...
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Diary
Queensland IR Society Lunch: May 10, 12pm @ Pullman King George Square, Cnr Ann and Roma Sts in the CBD. Guest speaker FWC President Justice Iain Ross - ‘ Developments in Fair Work Australia - Future Directions'. 2013 Workforce Planning Australia Workforce Planning Conference: May 14-15, Park Hyatt, Melbourne. NSW IR Society Annual Conference...
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Editorial team
Editor: Rajiv Maharaj, (03) 8684 2139, rajiv.maharaj@thomsonreuters.com. Chief Journalist: David Marin-Guzman. Journalist: Steve Andrew. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Product code: 314021718625. Twitter: @WorkforceTR
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