The Albanese Government will be able to make substantial progress on its promise of "rebalancing" the FWC, after the tribunal confirmed today that it has funding for 13 new members, or a quarter of its primary appointments.
The ILO is seeking expressions of interest for an Oceania-based legal expert to join its Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, following Australian labour law academic Rosemary Owens' departure after 13 years in the role.
Wages in private sector agreements approved in the September quarter remained stuck at 2.9% a year, defying labour shortages and inflationary pressure, according to DEWR data.
A leading IR law academic has welcomed the Albanese Government's return to a more open process for FWC appointments, as DEWR seeks expressions of interest for vice president, deputy president, commissioner and expert panel member roles, but he says structural reform is needed to rebalance the tribunal.
The FWC's new leading indicator of bargained wage rises - officially launched today - shows that deals lodged in the first half of last month paid an average increase of 3%, up on those in the most recent DEWR data.
The FWC has promised today to provide "real-time" data on bargained pay rises, with plans to issue fortnightly reports on wage movements in enterprise agreement approval applications, with the first "proposed report" showing a 3.2% average annualised rise in the first two weeks of July, well ahead of the last official departmental number for the March quarter of 2.7%.
A full Federal Court has extended the recent run of legal setbacks for casual workers, overturning a ruling that a mineworker should be paid a 25% loading on Fair Entitlements Guarantee payments after the labour hire company he worked for entered administration.
In the wake of the RBA governor's warning about the risks of a wage-price spiral, new A-G's department data shows that bargained pay rises are flatlining at 2.7% a year in the private sector, rising at little more than half the 5.1% rate of headline consumer price inflation.
The Albanese Government has appointed former Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James as the secretary of the new Department of Employment and Workplace Relations that opens its doors next week.
A senior Attorney-General's official has denied that the department failed to comply with its obligation to act with "honesty and integrity" when it asserted in the Religious Discrimination Bill's explanatory memorandum that the "statements of belief" provisions had no effect on other laws.
