LABOR UNIONS – AUSTRALIA

Big business challenge over penalty cuts

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 6-Jun-17

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says the Fair Work Commission’s decision to phase in lower penalty rates will encourage small businesses to trade on Sundays and create jobs. Public holiday and Sunday penalty rates in sectors such as retailing and hospitality will be reduced over several years, a move that has been welcomed by the Business Council of Australia. However, the Australian Retailers Association argues that the full reduction in Sunday rates should have been made by mid-2018, while United Voice will seek to have the FWC decision overturned by the Federal Court.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN RETAILERS ASSOCIATION, UNITED VOICE, ACTU, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, TOURISM ACCOMMODATION AUSTRALIA, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Fall in collective agreements blamed on union coverage

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 2 : 1-Jun-17

Research shows that just 36.4 per cent of Australian employees were covered by collective agreements in 2016, down from 43.4 per cent in 2010. The authors note that the proportion of workers covered by union agreements has declined since 2014, while coverage by non-union agreements has steadied after falling between 2010 and 2014. ACTU president Ged Kearney claims that on average, full-time workers who are covered by union agreements are paid an additional $A410 per week.

CORPORATES
ACTU, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

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

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

$500k in fines for ‘arrogant’ CFMEU

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Original article by Simone Fox Koob
The Australian – Page: 2 : 12-Apr-17

The Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union has been ordered to pay a $A490,000 fine over unlawful industrial action in 2014. The Federal Court has also imposed fines of between $A6,400 and $A22,400 on 10 CFMEU officials for their involvement in the industrial action against Kane Constructions. The strike action, which disrupted 10 construction projects in Victoria, was prompted by Kane’s move to enforce union right-of-entry laws. The judgment has been welcomed by Employment Minister Michaelia Cash.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, KANE CONSTRUCTIONS PTY LTD, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIAN MANUFACTURING WORKERS’ UNION, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION-FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL, MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES, SIR OWEN DIXON CHAMBERS, BMC WELDING AND CONSTRUCTION, JOHN BEEVER PTY LTD, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION

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

Union backs ACTU boss on breaking law

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Original article by Aaron Patrick, David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 17-Mar-17

Comments by new ACTU secretary Sally McManus suggesting that it was reasonable to break unfair laws have been widely criticised. Representatives from the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia were among those to condemn her remarks. Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten does not support McManus, saying his approach to bad laws was to get them changed. McManus has refused to retract her comments.

CORPORATES
ACTU, BUSINESS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, THE AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY GROUP, COUNCIL OF SMALL BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES. MEDICARE AUSTRALIA, MASTER BUILDERS AUSTRALIA INCORPORATED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EMPLOYMENT

Who are Australia’s union members? You may be surprised

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Original article by Roy Morgan Research
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 12-Jan-17

A Roy Morgan Single Source survey has found that 17.4% (or 1.9 million) Australians aged 14+ who are in full or part-time employment were members of a trade union in the year to September 2016. Union membership is highest among those employed in Public Administration and Defence, at 28.7% (or 201,000 people), followed by Community Services (27.5%, or almost one million people) and Electricity, Gas and Water (27.3%, or 98,000 people). The survey also shows that Education Professionals have the highest level of union membership, at 42.4% (383,000 people), while 28.1% of Australian Labor Party voters belong to a union, compared with just 11.8% of Liberal-National Party voters.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN RESEARCH LIMITED, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, NATIONAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN GREENS, CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA

Growth-sapping GST must face overhaul: miners

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Original article by Sid Maher
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 9-Jan-17

The Minerals Council of Australia has used its submission to the Productivity Commission’s five-year productivity review to urge changes to the system for distributing goods and services tax revenue. The MCA argues that the current system redirects GST revenue from states that have encouraged the development of natural resources to states that place strictures on mining and energy projects. The MCA has also called for a reduction in the corporate tax rate and action to address the power of unions under the Fair Work Act.

CORPORATES
MINERALS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA. PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, AUSTRALIA. COMMONWEALTH GRANTS COMMISSION, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

New whistleblower protections could hit senior CFMEU officials

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 2 : 19-Dec-16

Former Construction, Forestry, Mining & Energy Union organisers Andrew Quirk and Brian Miller are continuing to challenge their sacking after revealing in 2014 that the union’s New South Wales branch had links to an underworld figure. They are being represented by lawyer Chris McArdle, who argues that they would have had much greater protection if the Federal Government’s new whistleblower laws had been in place at the time of their dismissal.

CORPORATES
CONSTRUCTION, FORESTRY, MINING AND ENERGY UNION OF AUSTRALIA, SEYFARTH SHAW LLP