The scope of "same-job, same-pay" orders should replicate the host deal's, according to an employment and IR barrister who is urging the Albanese Government to plug a "leaking bucket", following a full court finding that the FWC should have confined its orders to a more limited cohort of on-hire workers at a Hunter Valley coal mine.
FWC-ordered minimum wage increases play a "critical role" in "reducing entrenched, intersectional wage inequality" for Aboriginal workers, who are more likely to be award-reliant, the Centre for Indigenous People and Work says in what is likely the first annual wage review submission to focus solely on First Nations workers.
The Albanese Government has again kept its election promise to urge the FWC's Annual Wage Review bench to order real wage increases for award-reliant and minimum wage workers that keep pace with the cost of living.
Peak employer body ACCI will seek a 3.5% rise in the Annual Wage Review 2026 after chief executive Andrew McKellar described the ACTU's 5% claim as "self-defeating".
The ACTU is seeking a 5% rise in award rates and the federal minimum wage to keep pace with cost-of-living pressures "that have gotten a lot tougher" with the fuel price rises from the Middle East war and interest rate hikes.
A full Federal Court has confirmed that homecare, disability and social workers should not be paid penalty rates for shifts immediately before or after sleepovers, four months after the FWC made draft award variations that will achieve the opposite.
The SDA is urging McDonald's to settle major rest breaks cases ahead of a lengthy hearing, as KFC and its franchisees agree to pay about $29 million to resolve a similar class action accusing them of denying proper breaks to tens of thousands of workers.
In a significant judgment on tertiary education sector pay, a full Federal Court has today found that under the academic staff award, a casual lecturer should have been paid for time spent marking assessments not directly related to particular lectures or tutorials.
A rope access technician has been ordered to pay $125,000 in costs after pursuing a failed underpayments and discrimination case described by the judge as "a textbook example of launching an action without reasonable cause".
BHP says it has contingency plans in place to ensure continuity of power supply to its Pilbara mines and ports, as 60 workers who operate its remote electricity grid threaten what it says is its WA iron ore operation's first protected action this century.
