Queensland Council of Unions secretary Jacqueline King says Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke is "receptive" to calls for new gender equity laws replicating the State's legislation that has "made more of a difference" in its first year than in the previous two decades under the Queensland IRC's equal remuneration principle.
Employers should consider modifying working conditions for pregnant women to mitigate premature birth risks, according to a Monash University study that found risks increased with physically demanding jobs, long hours, shiftwork, and exposure to whole-body vibration.
In what is believed to be the first workplace breastfeeding discrimination ruling, a tribunal has found that a KFC franchisee indirectly discriminated against a worker when it told her to express milk in a tent, within a storeroom with no door.
Employers can comply with the new "positive duty" to eliminate sexual harassment and sex discrimination by fostering a respectful culture, ensuring workers have avenues to report incidents, and taking a "risk-based" approach to prevention, according to Human Rights Commission guidance.
An Albanese Government senator has described Amazon's reliance on labour hire workers and independent contractors as the "wild west," and challenged the company's aspiration to be the "best employer on the planet", in a hearing this week.
The gender pay gap is stuck at 22.8%, while more than 40% of employers that analysed the disparity between men's and women's pay in their workplaces over the past year took no action, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency's latest scorecard.
In findings unlikely to get a good reception in Canberra, the Productivity Commission has come down firmly against the federal government adopting a policy of preferring direct employment in the aged care sector.
The Senate Work and Care inquiry's Labor and Greens majority is urging the Albanese Government to move swiftly to consider a right to disconnect, make flexibility requests an enforceable right and provide "roster justice" by ensuring workers with variable hours have predictability and certainty, in a 152-page interim report tabled this afternoon.
Many workers would forgo a pay rise of up to 10% to secure more say in where and when they work, according to a study that says the Fair Work Act is failing to keep up with flexible practices, while other research says WFH employees save an average of $10,000 a year.
To address Indigenous Australians' under-representation in the workforce, employers need to create employment targets and inclusive leave policies and recognise workers' diverse needs, according to a new report.
