The ASU has welcomed an Albanese Government commitment "to support pay increases and better career pathways" for community and disability workers if re-elected, with Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt pledging funding for a workforce project to update the SCHADS Award.
A 9.2% increase to the national minimum wage and award wages would restore low-paid workers' buying power to pre-pandemic trends without significantly affecting inflation, according to research finding no consistent link between minimum wage rises and inflation since 1990.
The ACTU is calling for a 4.5% increase to the minimum wage, well above the current inflation rate of 2.4%, to lift the annual full-time rate by $2,143 to $49,770, while Victoria's Allan Government is making the same pitch as its federal Labor counterpart, calling for a real increase in the minimum wage.
BHP is trying to "buy" support from its OS in-house labour hire workforce for a new production agreement by offering a $10,000 sign-on bonus, according to the Mining and Energy Union, after a parallel agreement for its maintenance cohort got across the line after it put forward the same sweetener.
Ahead of the May 3 poll, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is supporting a real pay increase in this year's minimum wage case, going further than his 2022 election call for the FWC to ensure workers' pay not "go backwards".
The FWC has refused to confine same-job, same-pay orders at a BHP coal mine to haul truck drivers, because the site's industrial instruments do not use the term and on-hire employees perform various other roles.
Slater & Gordon says it "continues to believe" following a forensic investigation that its former interim CPO was not responsible for sending a "malicious" email containing employees' purported salary details and performance scores.
Marles staffer settles bullying dispute; $70K fine for Qube; Next ECEC "batch" approved; and Public servant protections not reliant on uniforms: Inquiry.
A FWC presidential member has clarified the Commission's "global" approach to the BOOT and warned that agreements that pay only slightly above-award will attract greater scrutiny, in rejecting a West Australian coffee chain's proposed agreement.
Tensions in the FWC's continuing consideration of regulated labour hire arrangement orders in the mining industry have spilled into view, former federal Labor politician and current tribunal deputy president Terri Butler having to fend off a recusal application citing her supposed "prosecution" of "same job, same pay" policies while in Parliament.
