The Federal Government has asked the Productivity Commission to conduct the first of a series of five-yearly inquiries into the nation's productivity performance, but the ACTU says the initiative ignores the "real problems" faced by workers.
Qantas will pay $75m in cash bonuses to up to 25,000 employees on the back of a record $1 billion net profit, but some workers covered by the largest aviation unions won't be rewarded until they finalise new enterprise deals that include an 18-month pay freeze.
Domino's Pizza says it intends to introduce penalty rates in its next agreement and that a Deutsche Bank report predicting the change could reduce profits by 24% does not factor in productivity measures implemented since the previous deal.
Patrick Stevedores is asking the Fair Work Commission to end its year-long bargaining deadlock with the MUA at its four major container terminals, arguing the union has been stalling since mid-April on the company's "final offer".
Washery employees at two of Peabody Energy's Bowen Basin coal mines will experience a "small but significant reduction in their overall remuneration" after an FWC full bench upheld the mining giant's application to terminate its agreement.
Jetstar ground handling employees will earn bonuses of up to $600 a year for reducing baggage "misdirects" under a side deal to a proposed new enterprise agreement that delivers new allowances for towing and training.
The AWU has warned BlueScope Steel management to be aware it is sitting on a workplace "bomb that's about to explode" with its continued cost-cutting at the NSW plant producing Colorbond products.
A straddle driver who lost his job as a result of an automation-driven restructure at Patrick Stevedores' Port Botany container terminal has won his job back after the FWC ruled his dismissal was not a genuine redundancy.
Productivity, hours worked and real unit labour costs increased markedly in the year to March, while the wages share of the economy increased to a 12-year high, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
