The Abbott Government has urged the Fair Work Commission to take a "cautious approach" in this year's minimum wage review due to below-trend GDP growth and a slower than expected recovery in non-mining sectors, while the ACTU says the small business measures in the Budget "dramatically improve the affordability" of pay rises in the award-reliant sector.
The TWU has called for greater rights for foreign workers on temporary visas, with criminal sanctions to be imposed on employers who exploit them and illegally undercut wages.
The stevedoring award contains "inflated" penalty rates that are out of proportion to those applying in other industries, a senior FWC member has found in a decision in which he was overruled by a full bench majority.
Modern award transfer of business provisions that guarantee a new employer's recognition of prior service are set to be adjusted after a FWC full bench found they conflict with the National Employment Standards.
A CFMEU organiser who threatened to "go to war" with a sub-contractor on the Royal Adelaide Hospital project was in contempt of an order banning him from the site, the Federal Court has ruled.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected the AMWU's reliance on a petition to argue for a majority support determination for water treatment employees after the union failed prove the documents were at all times under control of its organisers or delegates.
The Abbott Government has quietly dropped re-establishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission and creating the Registered Organisations Commission as "major priorities" in its 2015-16 Budget.
The Heydon Royal Commission will next week issue a discussion paper that will canvass whether penalties for union officials who breach their duties should be brought into line with those for company directors under the Corporations Act.
A sacked manager has won an extension of time for her late unfair dismissal claim, after the FWC accepted that her lawyer was responsible for lodging it 32 seconds after the 21-day cut-off.
