Full bench refuses to outlaw OHS provisions in modern awards
Employers have lost a bid to remove OHS provisions from modern awards. FWA’s modern awards review full bench has dismissed arguments put by the Master Builders Association (MBA) and backed in part by the Ai Group and other employer groups about health and safety. They claimed Division 2 of Part 1-3 of the FW Act ...more
“Fair Work” – where are we at, post-election 2010?
Since the tumultuous federal election and its aftermath, and Labor’s re-election as a minority government, industrial relations issues have been as much about the personalities involved as matters of policy substance.
By Anthony Forsyth, co-author, with Val Gostencnik, Jacqueline Parker and Rosemary Roach, of “Navigating the Fair Work Laws”, to be published by Thomson Reuters in November 2010.
FWO says modernisation process will take years to play out
The transition to the modern award system is “extraordinarily difficult and complex” and will take years to play out, Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson told the Industrial Relations Society of Victoria at its AGM in Melbourne on Friday 8 October.
From: Workforce, 11 October 2010.
Employers calling for review of the 'Fair Work' system – but further changes are unlikely
A number of Australia’s leading employer associations have called on the Federal Government to make significant amendments to the Fair Work Act, claiming that they are unable to identify where and how the system is meeting the Government’s objective of delivering productivity growth and sustainable businesses.
Led by ACCI, the employer bodies have raised concerns about matters such as cost increases and reduced flexibility arising from the new modern awards; bargaining outcomes that fail to delivery productivity improvements; increased union activism, particularly through the use of rights of entry and protected industrial action; and a rise in unfair dismissal claims and the need for businesses to pay ‘go away’ money in order to settle claims.
By Anthony Forsyth, co-author with Val Gostencnik, Jacqueline Parker and Rosemary Roach, of “Navigating the Fair Work Laws”, which is publishing this week by Thomson Reuters. The book includes chapters examining in detail the Fair Work Act provisions relating to enterprise agreement-making, good faith bargaining, and protected industrial action.