The Albanese Government has retreated from proposed mandatory "guardrails" in its national AI policy released today, relying instead on existing regulators to report any legislative gaps to the newly-formed AI Safety Institute.
A House of Representatives committee has begun an inquiry into the "operation and adequacy" of the National Employment Standards, after a referral from Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth.
As the Albanese Government revealed plans for an AI Safety Institute to harness productivity gains and combat "malign uses" of the new technology, a "confronting" report from the FSU champions the need for a digital "just transition" amid concerns about job security and surveillance in the finance sector.
Multi-employer bargaining is on the chopping block and the definition of casual employment might follow suit, but the Coalition has changed its tune on working from home and tax cuts, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley announced today.
The Albanese Government should force companies to share productivity gains with employees via higher pay rises, extra leave or shorter hours, according to research using the retail sector to challenge "conventional wisdom" that productivity growth flows through to workers.
Assistant productivity minister Andrew Leigh says Australians have used about a quarter of the post-1980 productivity dividend to "work less", as he revisited a 1930 John Maynard Keynes prediction that people in 2030 "would inherit a world shaped by rising productivity and the promise of abundance".
Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth's plan to legislate "as soon as possible" to protect award-enshrined penalty rates has prompted the FWC to seek submissions on whether to shelve a major employer bid to insert a conditions buy-out clause in the retail award for workers on as little as $53,680 a year.
The Albanese Government has today appointed four new FWC members with union or employee-friendly backgrounds, while indicating its "rebalancing" of the tribunal hasn't yet been achieved.
Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has weighed into a crucial full bench same-job, same-pay test case targeting BHP's in-house labour suppliers, ahead of a hearing that starts Monday, contradicting claims the carve-out for service contractors captures any work that is "more than the mere supply of labour".
Gig platforms must use "human representatives" rather than AI when assessing a regulated worker's response to threatened deactivation, under a much-anticipated new code published by the Albanese Government last week.