Growth in rates of pay has dipped in hospitality and retail since Work Choices became law, while annual growth in rates across all industries is failing to match headline inflation, according to the ABS.
Michael Harmer, chair of law firm Harmers Workplace Lawyers, has turned on the Howard Government over Work Choices' drastic erosion of unfair dismissal rights, saying the change is "not only going to cost livelihoods, it will cost lives".
Companies are using Work Choices' employer greenfields agreements to exclude all or most protected award conditions, while in service industries they are using the instruments to secure low wage arrangements with no or low shift and penalty rates, a survey by Workplace Express confirms.
The ABC has increased its pay offer from 3% to 4% a year in a revised proposal to CPSU and MEAA members after weeks of rolling stoppages, including a 24-hour strike.
Employees aged over 50 at the Australian Catholic University will be able to ease down to part-time work while retaining full-time superannuation benefits as part of a new plan to retain older workers and create openings for new employees.
The Federal Court has today ordered the reinstatement of two National Union of Workers delegates, after finding their employer breached the Work Choices freedom of association provisions when it selected them for redundancy.
A bid by Qantas longhaul pilots for a finding that the airline unlawfully damaged their interests with its plans to move four aircraft to Jetstar has hit severe turbulence, after the Federal Court today threw out the claim.
A NSW IRC full bench has overturned the summary dismissal of a company's long-serving supervisor for receiving, viewing and storing pornographic material, and recommended the employer strengthen its purported zero tolerance policy and install a firewall to block similar material entering its IT system.
The TCFU is concerned that an application to remove redundancy provisions from a mid-term enterprise agreement by a carpet company in receivership signals a push to exploit gaps in the Work Choices 12-month transmission of business rule.
The Federal Government and unions today welcomed the Fair Pay Commission's first minimum wage determination but business leaders attacked the decision as a $2 billion cost on employers without any required increases in productivity.
