The FWC has rejected the ACTU's bid for a new entitlement for working parents and carers to work flexible hours, but has provisionally indicated it intends to publish a model award clause that will extend the right to request flexible work to casuals with six months service and require employers to provide more explanation for refusing requests.
Australian workers have gained a "hugely significant" two hours a week from automation of their jobs over the past 15 years and will experience a similar boost through to 2030, according to the Australian outpost of technology giant Google.
Nearly half of all household services jobs are now part-time, fueling a trend that has seen part-time work increase more than threefold over the past 50 years, according to the RBA's latest quarterly Monetary Policy Statement.
New RBA research provides tentative confirmation that more flexible IR laws have enabled employers to ride out difficult times by adjusting their employees' hours rather than making them redundant.
Over the next 15 years the nation should abolish the FWC and modern awards, set the minimum wage "as low as is politically feasible" and let the welfare system top up earnings, according to a new paper from an influential free market think tank.
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.
