NEWS-HR

The Fair Work Commission has ratified the Chrysalis Support Services Enterprise Agreement 2015.

Fair Work Vice-President Michael Lawler’s office has been inviting people to reject him hearing their cases. Mr Lawler’s associate has been sending an email advising parties in cases before him of the controversy surrounding his nine months of sick leave and his relationship with former union whistleblower Kathy Jackson. The email highlights the claims against the judge who oversees workplace disputes. “I have been asked to let you know this: Vice-President Lawler has been subject to extraordinary allegations against him in the Parliament which follow a series of newspaper articles also raising allegations,” the email says. “Do you object to Vice-President Lawler dealing with your matter?” Mr Lawler’s associate confirmed the emails. “For a short time he did instruct me to send these emails,” his associate said. “After consulting with three of his peers he came to the view the position was not warranted and no more contact to parties was made.”

Challenge Community Services has been presented with another by an ex-employee (Pine).

St Vincent De Paul Society wants to end its association with a staff member who is determined to stay (Lane).

The Department of Health and Human Services is in dispute with a staff member (Moore).

The West Australian Government has been unable to say where hundreds of jobs will be lost from the state’s public hospitals. The Government has declared the health system is overstaffed by “several hundred” employees.

The cost to taxpayers of the Fair Work Commission investigation into former Labor MP Craig Thomson and the Health Services Union has exceeded $4 million. Commission general manager Bernadette O’Neill told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday $4,136,000 has been spent.

Fair Work Commission President Iain Ross says he was “profoundly disappointed” to learn that his Vice President Michael Lawler secretly recorded their phone conversations, and has suggested New South Wales Police should investigate.