As the Senate prepares to consider the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs Bill, a new ACTU paper says the legislation's multi-employer bargaining provisions will be crucial in lifting wages in seven of the eight industries with above-average gender pay gaps.
The ACTU says the Albanese Government's push for multi-employer bargaining is at risk of being "frustrated" unless enterprise bargaining is knocked off its pedestal as a preferred object of the Fair Work Act.
In a significant decision on the nature of work, the FWC has found that the nursing home at the centre of one of Queensland's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks should have paid employees for the time spent taking rapid antigen tests before the start of their shifts.
The Senate has this afternoon extended the deadline until tomorrow for the report of the Secure Jobs Bill inquiry, which will hear last-minute evidence from the DEWR and FWC in the morning.
Enterprise agreements filed with the FWC in the fortnight to October 21 paid average annualised wage increases of 3.5%, substantially outpacing the 2.8% rises in DEWR's data for June quarter agreements but well below the 7.3% rate of consumer price inflation.
In a move that the NTEU warns could have a "chilling effect" on underpayment claims across the economy, the Federal Court has stayed its attempt to claw back millions of dollars on behalf of casual and sessional staff while Monash University pursues a FWC bid to retrospectively vary its agreement.
As she prepares to step down after 12 years, the world's top union leader, former ACTU president Sharan Burrow, has hailed the Albanese Labor Government for moving swiftly to overhaul Australia's IR laws, including the planned introduction of multi-employer bargaining.
Key crossbench Senator David Pocock says the vast majority of the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill is "good to go" and he is committed to working through his concerns about the rest of it in the next few weeks, including locking-in a review of the legislation.
A FWC full bench will tomorrow consider whether to terminate or suspend tugboat operator Svitzer's planned indefinite national lockout on Friday, after the company told Vice President Adam Hatcher it is not prepared to delay it and does not believe conciliation will help.
The FWC has upheld Victoria Police's rejection of a transit officer's flexibility request because it would exacerbate already "bleak" safety issues arising from understaffing in Melbourne's most crime-affected region.
