Legislation to respond to the transport fuel price crisis by enabling the FWC to fast-track road transport contractual chain order applications to lift rates for truck drivers has passed federal parliament late today.

A café owner who kissed a married 23-year-old employee on the mouth as she washed dishes has been ordered to pay $90,000 in damages and penalties, in the first concluded workplace s-xual harassment case under 2023 amendments to the Fair Work Act.

The scope of "same-job, same-pay" orders should replicate the host deal's, according to an employment and IR barrister who is urging the Albanese Government to plug a "leaking bucket", following a full court finding that the FWC should have confined its orders to a more limited cohort of on-hire workers at a Hunter Valley coal mine.

The FWC has authorised supported bargaining for cleaners at Victorian public schools, but the UWU says that the "ultimate fix" would be for the education department to directly employ them.

The Net Zero Economy Authority is seeking the second FWC just transition determination, to support workers through the closure of Australia's largest power station, while it is also consulting on closures in Western Australia.

Queensland's Crisafulli Government has launched a review of the State's IR and workers' compensation legislation, focusing on "restoring productivity to Queensland worksites", the near-doubling of psychological claims in the last five years and public sector bargaining.

The Victorian Government is calling for a real increase without delay for award-reliant and minimum wage workers to remedy the post-pandemic decline, while the Australian Industry Group says productivity is "insufficient to enable a sustainable increase in real wages" across the economy.

Three UWU organisers accused of running a "shadow campaign" over bargaining have withdrawn their unfair dismissal claims after reaching financial settlements with the union.

A senior FWC member has told an employer he would "welcome" a costs application after rejecting an AI-assisted general protections bid in which a worker relied on "incoherent" legal arguments and falsehoods to reframe his resignation as a constructive dismissal.

FWC-ordered minimum wage increases play a "critical role" in "reducing entrenched, intersectional wage inequality" for Aboriginal workers, who are more likely to be award-reliant, the Centre for Indigenous People and Work says in what is likely the first annual wage review submission to focus solely on First Nations workers.