The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called for this year's minimum wage increase to be no higher than 1.9% or about $13.20 a week, after taking into account the impact on small and regional businesses.
An FWO report released hot on the heels of Caltex's announcement that it will exit franchising has revealed non-compliance at 76% of audited sites and accuses the oil giant of contributing to breaches by failing to put effective systems in place, despite warnings.
Employers are not automatically entitled to reduce roster allowances when working hours fall below an agreement's "indicative" threshold, a court has found.
The Federal Circuit Court has levelled a $75,000 fine and is expected to order more than $25,000 in compensation against the director of a liquidated supermarkets enterprise who withheld about $450,000 in union dues, superannuation and Easter rates from more than 200 employees.
RBA Governor Philip Lowe's jawboning on wages is yet to have an effect, with the ABS confirming today that growth in private sector rates of pay remains in the doldrums and is now in lockstep with cost of living increases.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus says that unions doubt that the current system for equal pay cases will ever be able to address under-valuation of work in feminised industries.
On the heels of this week's rejection of a United Voice and AEU equal pay bid for childcare workers, the IEU on Monday heads to the FWC to press its separate claim on behalf of 12,000 university-qualified teachers employed in long day care centres and preschools.
Employer groups have began to push back against union and Labor support for a "living wage", with ACCI arguing it would cost between $4.8 billion and $7.9 billion per year.
An FWC full bench has today thrown out a United Voice and AEU equal pay claim for childcare workers after finding a 2005 work value case was insufficient, in the absence of contemporary evidence, to establish metalworkers as an appropriate comparator.
