The Federal Court has ordered a sacked senior HR manager to pay his former employer $45,000 in costs on a party-basis, after it rejected his AI-infected, meritless, "doomed to fail" bid for a judicial review of two FWC rulings.
Treasury's latest intergenerational report, released this afternoon, predicts Australia will have a far older working-age population in the 2060s, while artificial intelligence is expected to help achieve its long-term productivity growth assumptions.
The FSU is pushing the Commonwealth Bank for agreement-enshrined limits on its ability to monitor workers and use the data, claiming outdated laws are otherwise giving employers "free rein" to monitor every keystroke or conversation and keep tabs on toilet breaks.
Victoria's Allan Government has today promised to introduce the nation's "toughest workplace surveillance protection laws" if it is returned at November's election.
The FSU says it is embedding "trailblazing" AI clauses in agreements, as the FWC approves an Aware Super deal promising only a human will make key employment-related decisions, and another industry fund is seeking a variation that spells out its consultation obligations ahead of adopting the technology.
An academic says employers' use of multi-functional AI systems without including HR and workers in decision-making is handing power to algorithms, tech vendors and IT teams, creating far-reaching "unintended consequences".
Speakers at an IR conference have emphasised the importance of early, transparent consultations when introducing automation and AI-related change, but a lawyer says locking into a formal process too soon is risky.
Existing AI technologies could boost labour productivity growth in Australia to levels last seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to a leading AI developer.
An "obstinate" worker's "barrage" of lengthy AI-generated "dense, repetitive and often rambling" emails and refusal to accept that his employer had resolved his complaints warranted his dismissal, the FWC has ruled.
