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Industrial relations

Today

Former ABC radio presenter Antoinette Lattouf outside the Federal Court on Wednesday.

ABC boss concedes ‘step missing’ in removing Lattouf

Giving evidence ABC managing director David Anderson said he has ‘no problem’ with the statement Australia is a racist country because ‘it is based in fact’.

  • Max Mason

Yesterday

The CFMEU picket line outside the Roma Street Cross River Rail site in July.

CFMEU administrator launches ‘culture of violence’ probe in Queensland

CFMEU state officials will be forced to co-operate with an inquiry into violence and menacing conduct that was allegedly perpetuated by the union’s past leadership.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Antoinette Lattouf arrives at the Federal Court on Tuesday with her legal team.

Anxious Lattouf ‘self-medicated with alcohol’ after ABC dismissal

Journalist Antoinette Lattouf’s psychiatrist testified that being let go by the national broadcaster over social media posts worsened her vulnerable condition.

  • Max Mason
Master Builders Victoria board directors say the employer group is reliant on Incolink for solvency.

CFMEU redundancy fund ‘misuse’ of worker money sparks regulation call

Regulation of the vast redundancy fund sector could be an election issue, following claims a CFMEU fund unlawfully took workers’ money and gave it to the union.

  • Updated
  • David Marin-Guzman

Federal Court secretly suppresses Seven’s workplace dirty laundry

The judge did not alert news outlets until after the decision to withhold the claims had been made, despite previous attempts to oppose the move.

  • Max Mason
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This Month

Workplace Minister Murray Watt says the review showed Coalition “scaremongering” did not reflect reality.

Review into IR laws backs abolition of watchdog despite CFMEU threats

Employers “cannot fathom” how a review into Labor’s scrapping of the ABCC found no need to revive it after widespread reports of intimidation.

  • David Marin-Guzman
The torched ute belonging to a CFMEU organiser.

CFMEU organiser’s ute firebombed

A CFMEU organiser’s union car was firebombed in the middle of the night just three months after his house was vandalised with the words ‘CFMEU dog’.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Industrial relations in the construction industry is a key challenge the next government has to address, says the Civil Contractors Federation.

Builders push for limits on CFMEU wage-bargaining powers

Civil contractors are starting to lobby all sides of politics on reforming the construction industry, which could curb the CFMEU’s dominance of government projects.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Andrew Forrest

Fortescue heart-to-hearts make unionisation redundant: Forrest

Chairman Andrew Forrest reckons his staff are unlikely to unionise, as workplace reforms bring unions back into the nation’s most lucrative export industry.

  • Primrose Riordan and Mark Wembridge

January

The government is considering whether employers should pay costs of workers’ unsuccessful underpayment claims.

Change to small wage theft claims could prompt ‘go away money’ surge

A departmental recommendation that employers pay workers’ legal costs if they lose underpayment cases of up to $100,000 has sparked business fears.

  • David Marin-Guzman
The Hamilton Island Resort in Queensland was underpaying staff for eight years.

Luxury island retreat underpaid staff by more than $20m

The operators of Hamilton Island’s leisure facilities have agreed to backpay thousands of employees, admitting to almost a decade of underpayment.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Taking a break.

Is this the end of the ‘smoko’ break?

A Kmart boss says fewer people smoke these days so the mid-morning break is less important. Unions accuse the retailer of trying to kill off an Aussie tradition.

  • David Marin-Guzman
ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell argued big business would use the case to push for lower wages in other industries.

Assault on retail penalty rates may spread to other jobs: ACTU

A major push to simplify the retail award, backed by Coles, Woolworths, 7-Eleven and Mecca, has sparked union fears of a broader attack on penalty rates.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Woolworths argued that the retail award’s prescriptive rostering rules prevented it from giving managers the flexibility of a modern workplace.

Overtime rates for retail workers could be axed in employer push

Major supermarkets and other retailers have joined a case to exempt senior staff from award conditions, waive “outdated” smoko breaks and allow split shifts.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Dnata baggage handlers previously threatened strike action over Christmas.

More disruption warning after strikes cause flight delays

Stoppages by 1000 baggage handlers caused hours of delays to international flights at Sydney Airport, with the union threatening further action.

  • Updated
  • David Marin-Guzman
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CFMEU members protest in Sydney on Tuesday.

Path cleared for wantaway division to divorce ‘toxic’ CFMEU

Fair Work Commission approves a poll of 10,000 manufacturing division members on splitting from the broader union.

  • David Marin-Guzman
BHP’s Peak Downs mine is one of the three mines targeted under the same job, same pay laws.

Unions want ‘same-looking job, same pay’: BHP

BHP lawyers have urged the umpire to adopt a “big picture” approach to exemptions from same job, same pay laws for the company’s labour hire firms.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson urged staff not to resign after securing a path to arbitration.

Arbitration won’t change psychiatrists’ resignation plans: union

The workplace umpire’s urgent intervention has failed to stop the threat of a mass exit of doctors that could deplete the NSW hospitals’ workforce by a third.

  • David Marin-Guzman and Paul Karp
BHP estimated in 2023 that the Albanese government’s labour-hire laws could cost the miner an extra $1.3 billion in annual operating costs.

The gap between providing ‘labour’ and ‘services’ could be $49k a year

Workers employed by BHP subsidiaries and labour-hire firms are paid much less to do the same work as its direct workforce, unions argue in a major test case.

  • Euan Black
This is but one example of recent changes in industrial relations legislation growing in significance at a time when Australia can least afford it.

FWC case tests Labor’s ‘same job, same pay’ word to BHP

The government assured business the legislation was limited to labour hire providers. Now the minister says the concepts of labour hire and service contractors are “not mutually exclusive”.

  • Graeme Watson

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/industrial-relations-5yl