The Coalition has reversed its stance on working from home in the federal public sector, while also shifting its position on slashing the APS workforce by 41,000, saying it will now be achieved over five years by natural attrition and hiring freezes, but the CPSU is warning this will still have a "devastating" effect on services.
The ASU has welcomed an Albanese Government commitment "to support pay increases and better career pathways" for community and disability workers if re-elected, with Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt pledging funding for a workforce project to update the SCHADS Award.
A 9.2% increase to the national minimum wage and award wages would restore low-paid workers' buying power to pre-pandemic trends without significantly affecting inflation, according to research finding no consistent link between minimum wage rises and inflation since 1990.
After four months of industrial action, Maurice Blackburn employees have won an 11% wage increase over three years - and a bigger 12.5% rise for those on five-figure incomes - along with six days of reproductive leave and the ability to cash out unused health and wellbeing leave.
The ACTU is calling for a 4.5% increase to the minimum wage, well above the current inflation rate of 2.4%, to lift the annual full-time rate by $2,143 to $49,770, while Victoria's Allan Government is making the same pitch as its federal Labor counterpart, calling for a real increase in the minimum wage.
BHP is trying to "buy" support from its OS in-house labour hire workforce for a new production agreement by offering a $10,000 sign-on bonus, according to the Mining and Energy Union, after a parallel agreement for its maintenance cohort got across the line after it put forward the same sweetener.
The FWC has refused to confine same-job, same-pay orders at a BHP coal mine to haul truck drivers, because the site's industrial instruments do not use the term and on-hire employees perform various other roles.
RAFFWU has asked a full Federal Court today to void the Woolworths "rotten SDA sellout deal" that it claimed stripped workers' rights, froze wages and cut conditions.
Mining unions have applied to the FWC for a majority support determination to force Rio Tinto to the bargaining table with workers at its Paraburdoo iron ore operations, while an IR researcher says in a forthcoming book that Pilbara workers' ambitious demands at the height of union power more than four decades ago can provide lessons for unions today.
The Ai Group has hinted at a potential "consensus" in a FWC-initiated case with economy-wide implications to consider inserting WFH provisions in the clerks award, while expressing concern that it would be "unfair" to require submissions ahead of results of a survey on the issue, with the tribunal now persuaded to ditch the deadline and hold a conference.
