INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS – AUSTRALIA

Clubs industry split over penalty rates

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 9-May-17

United Voice has welcomed the decision by the RSL & Services Clubs Association of Queensland not to come under the hospitality award. The Fair Work Commission has suggested that the clubs award be scrapped and clubs be transferred to the hospitality award, so that clubs would not be at a disadvantage to hospitality employers. Such a disadvantage has been highlighted by Clubs Australia, which was unable to convince the FWC to cut penalty rates for clubs during its recent examination of rates within various sectors.

CORPORATES
UNITED VOICE, CLUBS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, RSL AND SERVICES CLUBS ASSOCIATION OF QUEENSLAND

Journalist cuts ‘will help drive Fairfax profits’

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Original article by Scott Murdoch
The Australian – Page: 4 : 5-May-17

Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood says back-office functions rather the editorial department have borne the brunt of its cost-cutting over the last five years. Hywood also says the latest round of redundancies will be the last, and he argues that Fairfax’s newspapers must be both profitable and sustainable in the long-term. Fairfax journalists hope that shareholders and advertisers will support their seven-day strike in response to the latest downsizing, which will result in the loss of 125 newsroom jobs.

CORPORATES
FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION

Coffee Club franchisee accused of 457 visa rorts

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 4-May-17

The Fair Work Ombudsman is prosecuting a cafe franchisee for exploiting a foreign employee who was recruited on a 457 visa. Saandeep Chokhani, a Brisbane-based Coffee Club franchisee, has been accused of underpaying the 457 visa holder. It has also been alleged that Chokhani told the employee that his visa would be cancelled if he did not repay some $A18,000 of his wages. A cafe was fined more than $A530,000 earlier in 2017 for exploiting 457 visa holders via a cashback arrangement.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, THE COFFEE CLUB PTY LTD, FEDERAL CIRCUIT COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Fairfax journos strike as one in four jobs cut

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Original article by Stephen Brook, Mitchell Bingemann, Brad Norington
The Australian – Page: 6 : 4-May-17

A Fairfax Media spokesman says the print and digital editions of "The Age" and "The Sydney Morning Herald" will continue to be produced during industrial action. Fairfax journalists have commenced a seven-day strike in response to Fairfax’s measures to reduce costs by an additional $A30m. This will include a downsizing of its newsroom staff, initially via voluntary redundancies. Some 125 jobs will be cut, which equates to about 25 per cent of Fairfax’s journalists.

CORPORATES
FAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED – ASX FXJ, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB (AUSTRALIA), NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS

Penalties hypocrisy storm for Bill’s bus

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Original article by Joe Kelly
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 28-Apr-17

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has accused Australian Labor Party leader Bill Shorten of hypocrisy over his opposition to Sunday penalty rate cuts. Cash was commenting on revelations that several enterprise agreements negotiated for retail workers in north Queensland by the Australian Workers’ Union during Shorten’s time as its leader left staff working on Sundays worse off than under previous agreements. A spokesperson for Shorten said he had no involvement in the negotiations that led to the agreements in question.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION-FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL, MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, TARGET AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BIG W DISCOUNT STORES, JUST JEANS PTY LTD, RYDGES HOTELS – RESORTS, SHOP, DISTRIBUTIVE AND ALLIED EMPLOYEES’ ASSOCIATION

Kikki.k’s penalty rate secret exposed

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 13-Apr-17

The Fair Work Commission recently approved a new enterprise bargaining agreement for stationery retailer kikki.K. The EBA includes provision for a reduction in Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. However, employees say that they are not paid penalty rates at present, as they are employed as casual staff via labour hire firm Employment Innovations rather than directly by kikki.K. Some employees also say they were not involved in negotiations for the new EBA and only managerial staff were allowed to vote on it.

CORPORATES
KIKKI.K PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, EMPLOYMENT INNOVATIONS PTY LTD, HRO INITIATIVES, EI ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, TDM ASSET MANAGEMENT PTY LTD, FIRST SUPER PTY LTD, DAVID JONES LIMITED

Retailers start cutting Sunday penalty rates

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 10-Apr-17

The Fair Work Commission recently approved a new workplace agreement for kikki.K employees that includes provision for changes to Sunday and public holiday penalty rates in the retail industrial award. FWC deputy president Geoff Bull conceded that the stationery retailer’s employees could be adversely affected by this clause. However, he found that kikki.K’s commitment to increase employees’ base hourly rates by at least 5.7 per cent more than the award rate for 2015-16 meant the agreement complies with the "better off overall test".

CORPORATES
KIKKI.K PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, RETAIL AND FAST FOOD WORKERS UNION, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP

Sacking over salesman’s ‘crude’ Facebook post unfair

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 10-Apr-17

The Fair Work Commission has directed LED Technologies to pay compensation to a former salesman after it found that he was unfairly dismissed over a Facebook post. LED claimed that the post – which contained offensive language – was in breach of its social media policy which bans using social media at work. In his defence, the salesman had claimed that he was on a break at the time, that he was unaware of the policy, and that the post made no reference to LED.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, LED TECHNOLOGIES PTY LTD, FACEBOOK AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

CFMEU threatens building chaos

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 3-Apr-17

The Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union will refuse to renegotiate existing enterprise bargaining agreements to ensure that they comply with the Federal Government’s new building code. The CFMEU’s stance could result in many large construction groups being banned from gaining federal government contracts. Employment Minister Mich­ael­ia Cash argues that this will prevent CFMEU members from working on government-funded projects, while Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn warns that it will increase the cost of such projects.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, LEND LEASE GROUP LIMITED – ASX LLC, BROOKFIELD MULTIPLEX LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, ACTU

Turnbull and Hanson back penalty pay cut

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Original article by Laura Tingle
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 6-Mar-17

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the Coalition accepts and supports the Fair Work Commission’s decision to reduce Sunday penalty rates. He also favours reducing penalty rates over a period of time to offset the impact on after-tax pay. One Nation founder Pauline Hanson also says she supports lower penalty rates "in principle". Hanson argues that small food retailers cannot compete with big chains whose employees’ union-negotiated enterprise bargaining agreements do not include penalty rates.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, ONE NATION PARTY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, McDONALD’S AUSTRALIA LIMITED