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.
Wage rises in private sector enterprise agreements remain marooned at 2.6%, while public sector increases have dropped back to recent trends, according to new Attorney-General's Department data that appears to confirm that the pandemic has accelerated the long-running decline in bargaining.
Bargained wage rises in the private sector show little sign of pushing towards the "materially higher" benchmark set by the RBA, growing at 2.6% for the second quarter in a row, while public sector bargaining collapsed.
The Morrison Government has cut back funding for the Fair Entitlements Guarantee in the 2021-22 Federal Budget, but still expects an increase in claims as COVID-19 support for business is wound back and more employers go into liquidation.
Bargained private sector wage rises recovered to near three-year highs in the March quarter, before they felt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Attorney-General's Department.
Large numbers of retail employees covered by agreements approved in the second half of last year face wage freezes if employers succeed in their campaign for a coronavirus-driven pause in minimum pay rises such as that adopted during the GFC, new Attorney-General's Department data on bargained wage rises reveals.
