Hourly rates of pay excluding bonuses in the private sector are increasing at a record low of 2.2% a year in trend terms, according to the ABS Wage Price Index, released today.
Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.
Wage growth in private sector federal agreements approved by the FWC in the March quarter dropped to the lowest level since 1991, according to the Department of Employment.
A tribunal has found that the Australian Human Rights Commission denied employees with intellectual disabilities procedural fairness when it approved a discrimination exemption for a widely used tool to assess disability wages.
The head of the peak small business body has welcomed changes implemented by the Fair Work Commission's president, but is less keen on the tribunal's members, accusing them of failing to "take reality into account" on issues such as penalty rates and minimum hours for junior retail workers.
The Fair Work Commission has asked Coles to make changes to its proposed supermarkets agreement, which covers about 75,000 retail workers, before it can pass the better-off-overall-test.
