The ACTU has fired the first shot in the royal commission into union corruption, finance and governance by telling the inquiry chief Dyson Heydon that it wants a ban on selective leaking of evidence to the media before hearings.
The Coalition has warned public servants there will be "minimal capacity for wage increases" in bargaining to replace 114 enterprise agreements covering 165,000 employees that are due to expire on June 30.
The Coalition has added the former Labor government's legislation extending Australia's migration zone to cover all offshore resources activity to the "red tape" it is targeting for repeal.
The federal government's decision as part of its "red tape" repeal campaign to rescind the IR guidelines for government cleaning contracts suggests it is "willing to turn a blind eye to labour law non-compliance by its own contractors", according to a procurement expert, Melbourne Law School associate professor John Howe.
Gender reporting requirements for businesses with more than 100 employees will stay as they are for another year, while new minimum reporting standards will apply to non-government employers with more than 500 employees from October, Employment Minister Eric Abetz has announced.
The Coalition has made good on its election promise to launch a new guide and online learning program to help small business owners to hire new employees.
FWBC head Nigel Hadgkiss has called for agreement clauses allowing industry-wide RDOs, weekend shutdowns and restrictions on subcontractors and labour hire to be "consigned to the past where they belong".
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver will lead a union delegation to Canberra tomorrow to step up political lobbying over the Abbott government's legislation to change the Qantas Sale Act.
Employers will only have a role in paying workers their government-funded parental leave entitlement if they want one, under legislation introduced into federal parliament by the Coalition this morning.
