The ACTU is seeking in the FWC's four-yearly review of modern awards to introduce an across-the-board entitlement to 10 days a year of paid family and domestic violence leave.
RMIT honorary professor and long-serving IR academic Breen Creighton says Australian labour law legislation has been characterised by knee-jerk responses to non-existent problems, a lack of willingness to allow existing laws to deal with issues, and "political opportunism", which explains why the major statute had been amended five times a year on average since 2009.
The ACTU will push for the Fair Work Commission's four-year modern award review to create a common clause giving more than two million casual workers the right to become permanent employees.
The Napthine Government has introduced more stringent requirements for companies tendering for public sector construction work under a new code and has imposed its first sanction on a builder since guidelines took effect in 2012.
In the first real IR test of the post-July 1 Senate's precarious balance of power, Palmer United Party senators voted with their Coalition colleagues last night to preserve, by one vote, the rights of the WA government and third parties to ask the Fair Work Commission to terminate damaging industrial action.
The Abbott Government this morning introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives to cap redundancy payments under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme at a maximum of 16 weeks, describing the current benefits for employees of insolvent companies as "overly generous" and as creating a "moral hazard".
Family First Senator Bob Day has used his first speech to parliament to press his argument for allowing job seekers to opt out of the regulated IR system if it will help them get work.
The Law Council has come out against the Coalition's proposed creation of an independent appeal jurisdiction for the Fair Work Commission, saying the current mechanisms "do not need to be altered".
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has told the AiG and others lobbying for accelerated IR change to take a "deep breath" and focus on what is already on the table.
