The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has agreed to enter into mediation with an employee who accuses it of taking adverse action by suspending and demoting her and directing her to take indefinite leave following a long absence for cancer treatment and surgery.
Labour productivity grew at a higher average annual rate in the five years to 2015-16 than it did over the past 15 and 30 years, according to new Treasury analysis, but a leading labour market economist has criticised the "arbitrary and misleading" window chosen for the study.
The FWC has approved a new code-compliant enterprise agreement between the CFMEU and a key Boral concreting subsidiary that provides a right for casuals to request permanency after six weeks.
The Turnbull Government has blasted a major builder that negotiated a precedent-setting enterprise agreement with the CFMEU as being "highly unrepresentative" of the construction industry, describing the deal as an act of "commercial self-harm".
A group of major builders is well advanced in negotiations with the CFMEU on variations to enterprise agreements to enable them to comply with the Turnbull Government's national construction code.
The ACTU has sought to broker discussions with two smaller maritime unions that are objecting to the planned merger of the CFMEU with the MUA and TCFU.
The approval of new deals covering almost 22,000 ATO and PM&C employees heralds significant progress in the CPSU's longest-ever bargaining dispute, but the union says it won't be resolved until the Department of Human Services "gets the message on retaining rights and conditions".
