The FWC will today hold its final hearing in this year's minimum wage review, in which employers and unions are divided over whether the domestic economy has started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
The NSW Government has taken off the table its offer of a $1000 "bonus" and job guarantee in lieu of a pay rise for frontline public servants, as it pursues the freeze in the NSW IRC, following a disallowance motion in the Upper House.
The employer application to vary key construction awards will be heard by an FWC full bench on July 8 and 9, in the face of strong opposition from building unions.
The ACTU and the Victorian Government in supplementary submissions to the FWC's annual wage review have maintained their requests for real wage increases, while the AiG has fallen into line with ACCI and backed a freeze.
Unions objecting to a joint employer group bid for coronavirus-driven variations to building awards that would allow hours to be cut to zero have today also questioned its validity, given two of the peak bodies are not registered organisations.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison's plan for a dialogue with unions and employers over changes to workplace laws has sparked a scramble among stakeholders to get a seat at the table.
The NSW Government has imposed a 12-month wage freeze on its 408,000-strong public sector workforce, but has provided a job security guarantee for the same period.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter will chair five working groups with the aim of producing a "practical reform" of the IR system to help grow jobs as the economy emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thirteen major law firms have dropped their application for temporary changes to the Legal Services Award in response to the coronavirus, a month after the ASU demanded they prove the changes were necessary.
More than 200,000 award-covered fast food industry workers face temporary cuts to part-time hours and reduced overtime penalties under fiercely-contested, pandemic-related changes approved by an FWC full bench.
