Domino's pizza chain has joined the groundswell in support of paid maternity leave, announcing today that it was offering the benefit - plus paid partner leave - to the 200 permanent employees at its head office.
Pay increased at 3.8% a year in December quarter federal enterprise agreements, slightly lower than the previous quarter, according to DEEWR data that is likely to allay Reserve Bank concerns about a wages breakout. The data shows that a large number of retail agreements in the quarter moderated the average increase.
The Rudd Government's National Employment Standards should give Fair Work Australia a dispute-settling role, expand family and carers' rights and guarantee public holiday pay rates, according to Griffith University's Professor David Peetz.
CRS workers reject non-union agreement; OHS review to consider harmonisation; Government opposes MUA request for waterfront dispute Cabinet documents as anniversary of 1998 dispute arrives; Lack of skills biggest impediment to quick response to climate change; and ABC launches 'green at work' website
The Productivity Commission is seeking feedback by June 2 on questions surrounding a national paid parental leave scheme, such as whether it should be funded by employers, be long enough to provide for breast-feeding and foster family-well-being and how to ensure it doesn't replace voluntary privately-funded leave.
Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens today agreed in principle that allowing bargaining on a wider range of matters would be positive for productivity, as both sides of politics sought to draw him into supporting their IR policy positions in his evidence to the House Economics Committee.
Who should manage organisational responses to the challenges arising from global warming - HR or internal environmental experts? That question was a matter of controversy at a Workplace Research Centre conference in Sydney yesterday, where the environmental sustainability director of a major construction company said handing the job to HR was the "blue screen of death" for the issue.
The CFMEU has won a $7,000 fine against a NSW painting business for sacking an employee because he took time off for an injury, despite the company's argument that it dismissed him because it had ceased operating.
Serco Sodexho Defence Services has been fined $7,500 for applying duress to a 19-year-old employee by threatening to dismiss her unless she signed an AWA, in a case that demonstrates employers' confusion over Work Choices.
