I’m putting together a post on Labor’s IR backdown, but I’m snowed under at work right now so I’m not really in the mood to finish writing it just yet. In the meantime, here’s some video and music you might find interesting. Kath & Kim: “Bloody Howard” You’ve surely heard that this week’s episode of [...]
As Michael Bachelard pointed out in The Age recently, the ABCC was ostensibly set up to deal with organised crime in the building industry — yet “almost two years after the ABCC was set up as a statutory commission, not one alleged organised criminal has been charged.” Instead, it uses its extraordinary powers to persecute [...]
In yet another admission that WorkChoices is a failed policy, the head of the OEA, Peter McIlwain, has been demoteed. His organisation is being renamed the Workplace Authority, and its new director is Barbara Bennett. As Mark Bahnisch points out, this is part of a spin exercise. This is how the Minister explained the new [...]
TWU members in Sydney struck for two hours this morning, due to concerns about threats that were allegedly made to their delegates. The first incident occurred on 19 July: Three drivers at the Westbus depot at Bonnyrigg — all union delegates — and a union official claim the manager told them during a meeting on [...]
On Tuesday, 29 August, there will be two rallies in Perth to support workers who are being attacked in court under the Howard Government’s new IR laws. 107 construction workers and about 40 metalworkers will appear in the Federal Court to defend themselves. Both groups are calling for support at early-morning rallies in the CBD: [...]
Construction giant Baulderstone Hornibrook and seven of its managers will be prosecuted in the NSW Industrial Court over a workplace death. Several related companies are still under investigation. The multinational faces a small fine — $825 000 is a pittance to a company of its size — while the . However, The bosses have escaped heftier [...]
Is this the best they can do? Yesterday, Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews presented the case for the defence, launching a film of three “case studies” to illustrate how the new workplace relations system represents a “win-win” for employers and workers. However, one of the companies that stars in the video was convicted and fined [...]
A troubling report in The Age suggests that certain government agencies can not be prosecuted for systemic occupational health and safety breaches that kill workers. Set Van Nguyen, a 44-year-old microbiologist, was killed when he was “trapped in a chamber full of leaking nitrogen” at a CSIRO laboratory. The coroner investigating the death heard this [...]
The independent inquiry into the Beaconsfield disaster has been announced: The Tasmanian government released the terms of reference into the inquiry, which will probe whether activities at the Beaconsfield gold mine contributed to the fatal rockfall that killed Mr Knight, and trapped Mr Russell and Mr Webb for 14 days. The inquiry will be able [...]
As the Beaconsfield survivors try to squeeze every last penny out of the chequebook journalists, their colleagues have been meeting with union representatives to talk about improving safety standards before they go back underground. Following the meeting, Bill Shorten reported: It [the AWU] could not identify a single underground miner who had received occupational health [...]
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