The Queensland Government appears to be continuing the rollout of its revised public sector wages policy, reaching an in-principle deal with the State's teachers that will deliver 11% in pay rises over three years, plus "cost of living top-up payments" of up to 3% a year.
The ACTU has thrown its support behind workers employed by a Melbourne carpet maker that is seeking to terminate its enterprise agreement, saying it needs urgent attention, while a local Labor MP says IR Minister Tony Burke is "looking very seriously" at the broader issue.
The FWC has late today thrown out the Sydney Trains bid to terminate unions' protected industrial action because it would damage the population's welfare or endanger the economy.
A full Federal Court has knocked back a traffic management company's attempt to overturn the FWC's rejection of a proposed non-union deal and has given it a clip around the ears for the way it ran the case.
RAFFWU says it is seeking to replicate a Sydney bookstore deal that it describes as the "most significant" retail agreement in Australia, the FWC approving it this week after the employer had a second shot at explaining it to members.
The FWC has this week approved a new agreement for the Australia Council of Social Service that lifts pay by the 4.6% rise in award minimum rates, provides new paid cultural and First Nations leave and enables employees to take a substitute public holiday for the January 26 "Invasion Day".
A proposed new agreement for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition provides substantial upfront pay rises and entitlements to five days paid climate disaster leave, 30 days paid gender affirmation leave and 12% super contributions, while it replaces workplace breastfeeding provisions with "chestfeeding" rights.
The NSW Opposition has promised today that if it takes power at the March election, it will scrap the decade-old public sector wages cap and replace it with a productivity-based bargaining system.
In the wake of the RBA governor's warning about the risks of a wage-price spiral, new A-G's department data shows that bargained pay rises are flatlining at 2.7% a year in the private sector, rising at little more than half the 5.1% rate of headline consumer price inflation.
