The FWC has reduced Sunday penalty rates in the hospitality, retail, fast food and pharmacy sectors and pared-back public holiday penalties in five awards, in a landmark ruling today by a five-member full bench.
The NSW Public Service Association has defied a court order restraining it from organising its members to strike in protest at the State Government's plans to privatise disability support work and will now face substantial penalties in the Supreme Court.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union says it has dozens of Bakers Delight agreements in its sights in today's first application to terminate an expired deal it alleges leaves some workers more than $2000 a year worse off than under the award.
Law firm Maurice Blackburn says that after a court judgment today almost 10,000 workers with intellectual disabilities are set to receive more than $100 million in compensation for the Federal Government's alleged indirect disability discrimination when it required that their pay be fixed using its wage assessment tool.
Victoria will conduct gender audits across the state public sector as part of a new strategy to address inequality, sexism and violence against women, while a Senate inquiry majority has rejected legislation to outlaw "pay gag clauses" to reduce the gender-based remuneration gap.
Protracted negotiations over oil and gas agreements in the Bass Strait have moved a step closer to arbitration following the Victorian Government's application to terminate bargaining in the face of looming strike action.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
The Fair Work Commission's new investigation into the AWU's Victorian branch and its former secretary, Cesar Melhem, will extend to the notorious Cleanevent enterprise agreement.
