Law firm Ashurst says the looming multi-employer bargaining laws might explain the results of a survey in which 65% of employers say they intend to initiate agreement negotiations in the next six months.
An IR academic has cautioned against Productivity Commission suggestions that a review of new multi-employer bargaining measures should consider giving the ACCC a role and says he is "surprised" at questions about the public benefit of lifting workers' pay.
The Productivity Commission says a review of the Albanese Government's new multi-employer bargaining measures should consider amending the Competition and Consumer Act so the ACCC can play a role.
The Australian Higher Education Industrial Association says it is doing its job by developing a roadmap for securing fast rollover agreements to avoid universities being "roped in" to multi-employer deals.
The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act has received Royal Assent, stamping out pay secrecy clauses in new employment contracts, paring back MSD requirements and making it harder for employers to terminate agreements during bargaining, while the ABCC has entered a transition period ahead of its abolition.
As the Senate prepares to consider the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs Bill, a new ACTU paper says the legislation's multi-employer bargaining provisions will be crucial in lifting wages in seven of the eight industries with above-average gender pay gaps.
The ACTU says the Albanese Government's push for multi-employer bargaining is at risk of being "frustrated" unless enterprise bargaining is knocked off its pedestal as a preferred object of the Fair Work Act.
The Senate has this afternoon extended the deadline until tomorrow for the report of the Secure Jobs Bill inquiry, which will hear last-minute evidence from the DEWR and FWC in the morning.
As she prepares to step down after 12 years, the world's top union leader, former ACTU president Sharan Burrow, has hailed the Albanese Labor Government for moving swiftly to overhaul Australia's IR laws, including the planned introduction of multi-employer bargaining.
