The ALAEA says a one-minute strike by Qantas licensed engineers played a crucial role in securing a proposed deal boosting job security as the Flying Kangaroo introduces new aircraft and enables Sydney LAMEs to radically change their roster to achieve "lifestyle benefits", while the airline has today confirmed it cut labour costs by about $570 million under its COVID-19 "recovery plan".
Some Australian universities have engaged in "passive resistance" when questioned over employee underpayments and record-keeping, according to Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker.
Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers has today argued for "responsible and sustainable" wage increases to ease cost of living pressures, as he emerged from an address to the ACTU's national executive in Melbourne.
In what it claims is its first litigation seeking to have a holding company found responsible for its subsidiaries' breaches, the FWO has initiated court action against ASX-listed Super Retail Group for self-reported underpayments of more than $1 million that led to an internal audit and backpayments exceeding $50 million that the watchdog says remain short of the mark.
Wages in private sector agreements approved in the September quarter remained stuck at 2.9% a year, defying labour shortages and inflationary pressure, according to DEWR data.
Target has paid workers a $400 lump sum bonus after they voted up a proposed four-year deal to replace its 2012 "zombie" agreement, with conditions, wages and pay rises to be tightly pinned to the retail award.
Enterprise agreements filed with the FWC in the fortnight to November 18 paid average annualised wage increases of 3.4%, substantially outpacing the 2.8% rises in DEWR's data for June quarter agreements but well below consumer price inflation of about 7%.
As inflation continues to rise at about 7%, annual wage increases have dropped to just 2.2% in the latest fortnightly batch of "real-time" enterprise deals analysed by the FWC, due to health and welfare agreements paying an average of 2.1% a year.
Enterprise agreements filed with the FWC in the fortnight to October 21 paid average annualised wage increases of 3.5%, substantially outpacing the 2.8% rises in DEWR's data for June quarter agreements but well below the 7.3% rate of consumer price inflation.
