Pay rises in private sector agreements eased in the March quarter and plummeted from an unusual spike in the public sector, according to DEWR's latest data.
Victoria's public sector nurses are set to decide whether to endorse a pay rise of 28% over four years after rejecting an earlier offer and closing hospital beds, while NSW nurses have handed the Minns Government a "business case" for a quick 15% uplift.
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.
Master Builders Victoria has defended a new "industry template agreement" struck with the CFMEU, arguing it delivers simplified common clauses and "greater flexibility in engagement".
The Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association is at the pointy end of a bid for an intractable bargaining declaration to break an alleged "impasse" in negotiations on behalf of Qantas engineers in Tamworth, with the Flying Kangaroo and the union due to report back to the FWC this morning.
The FWC has urged the Defence Department to send "an authorised and properly instructed representative" to deadlocked bargaining negotiations at the Australian Submarine Corporation.
The IEU is planning to apply for a supported bargaining authorisation covering up to 40 NSW community-based preschools by the end of the month, pushing for increases of at least 25% for teachers who are paid far less than they would receive if they worked in a school.
The SDA has strongly defended its tying of bargained pay rises to the FWC's annual safety net rises, pointing to inflation-beating increases over the past seven years enjoyed by 100,000 Coles workers, as voting opens today on the retailer's proposed four-year deal in the face of a RAFFWU campaign to reject it.
BHP iron ore train drivers in the Pilbara have called off tomorrow's planned 24-hour strike, after reaching what the MEU says is an "industry-leading" in-principle enterprise deal that provides a guaranteed across-the-board 20% pay rise over four years and $40,000 in retention payments.
The FWC has refused to grant Ventia an intractable bargaining declaration it sought after workers at outsourced Defence aviation firefighting operations in Queensland rejected its unilateral offer, in the tribunal's first contested IBD case determined by a single member.