A freeze has been imposed on big employers applying to self-insure under Comcare while the Albanese Government reviews the compensation scheme's legislative framework, 17 years after a former Labor IR minister imposed what turned into a six-year moratorium on new participants.
Legislation introduced today by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke provides two "pathways" for the CFMEU's manufacturing division to demerge from the broader union.
Unions NSW says that proposed base pay increases in this week's State budget amount to an "offer that workers and their unions can build on in bargaining" after the scrapping of public sector pay caps.
The NSW Parliament has passed legislation providing an industrial manslaughter offence punishable by jail terms of up to 25 years for individuals and fines for companies of up to $20 million - the largest in Australia - along with new laws extending the State's portable long service leave scheme.
The Albanese Government will introduce laws to allow the CFMEU's manufacturing division to demerge if members vote for it, with the ACTU claiming "Mr Setka's personal grudges" have led to an exit push that "cannot be resolved any other way".
A "broad coalition" of unions will call at this week's ACTU Congress in Adelaide for the peak group to press the Albanese Labor Government to legislate next year to insert 10 days reproductive health leave into the NES, according to key affiliate the Queensland Council of Unions.
Queensland's Miles Government has introduced legislation to expand the reach of its industrial manslaughter legislation and bring it into line with equivalent state laws.
The ANMF is urging the FWC to use "right to disconnect" award variations to make it harder for employers to cut costs by relying on "threadbare" staffing and refusing to roster enough workers on-call, while the NTEU wants casual academics paid to respond to students outside their working hours.
As the Minns Labor Government prepares to introduce further IR amendments in NSW, the lawyer involved in one of the first adverse action cases brought under the Fair Work Act has told a conference the one thing he would not recommend is adopting the federal legislation's general protections provisions.
Employer and union speakers at the NSW IR Society's annual conference have voiced reservations about the Minns Government's "mutual gains bargaining" system, but State IR Minister Sophie Cotsis says she is "encouraged" by engagement levels so far.
