The FWC's annual wage review expert panel has today granted a below-inflation 4.75% rise in all award rates, after "regrettably" concluding it would not be "practicable or responsible" to order a larger increase in the current "uncertain" economic conditions.
The FWC is set to make a same-job, same-pay order covering on-hire casual de-stuffers at an Aldi distribution centre that will see their 25% loading and any allowances paid on top of a "loaded" base rate paid to permanent workers.
A former FWO chief counsel-turned judge has taken an axe to the workplace regulator's belief in penalties as a general deterrent, expressing astonishment at its "staggering" pursuit of a $21,000 fine against an employer who quickly coughed up a $976 underpayment once a junior worker provided proof of their age.
As thousands of early childhood education and care workers prepare to walk out over feared pay cuts of between 4% and 15% when their taxpayer-funded retention scheme expires in November, the federal minister responsible is declining to provide certainty on the government's future intentions.
In a case testing the extent to which employers can withhold pay during protected industrial action, the Federal Court today conducted a hearing into the AWU's claim that Chevron unlawfully deducted loading and allowances from workers during stoppages at its WA facilities.
The FWC has refused to stay same-job, same-pay orders pending an appeal in June, because it would deny new workers increased pay, after poultry processing company Bartter switched labour-hire providers shortly after the tribunal made orders.
In what the NTEU has called a "new low" in tertiary education sector underpayment cases, Torrens University is seeking permission from the High Court to challenge last month's full court finding that casual academics should be paid for marking assessments not directly related to particular lectures or tutorials.
The NSW IRC's significant increases ordered today will result in midwives and registered and enrolled nurses at the top of the pay scale becoming the best paid in Australia.
A FWC expert panel is seeking urgent feedback on a draft contractual chain order to ensure road transport workers can from the start of next week recoup higher fuel costs caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
A NSW IRC full bench will on Thursday decide public sector nurses' special case bid for a 35% pay rise, while the state union's employees will get a 5% increase and a one-off "cost of living allowance" under a proposed agreement variation.
