Award wage increases have responded to rather than contributed to higher price inflation, and although the tight labour market has brought higher pay growth, it is "not enough to be a threat to slowing price inflation", according to a leading labour market economist.
The RBA says several new early indicators it has developed in-house are helping it to build a "fuller view" of wage movements ahead of the release of official figures.
New DEWR data has undercut RBA warnings about the risks of a wage-price spiral, indicating that private sector bargained wage growth remains anchored below 4% a year.
Legal limits on the scope of bargaining mean that safety laws might provide a better avenue to address workplace climate change impacts than using enterprise agreements, according to an IR law academic.
The Fair Work Act's continuing focus on single-enterprise bargaining, along with weak underpinning awards and supported bargaining's restriction to multi-employer rather than sector-wide bargaining, will limit the new stream's capacity to achieve "decent wages" for low-paid female employees, according to leading IR academics.
Mandating equality bargaining and creating an enforceable positive gender equality duty could improve workplace gender equality, academics say in a new article in the Journal of IR.
New DEWR data shows that bargained private sector wages grew at 3.9% a year in the March quarter - the fastest rate of increase in more than a decade, but still a long way behind inflation.
Three-quarters of working women are suffering from painful periods, according to a continuing survey conducted by Maurice Blackburn that it is seeking to open up to a broader audience, as it prepares to use the data to lobby for reproductive leave and flexible work arrangements.
The Albanese Government has outlined for the first time the details of how it might implement its "same job, same pay" proposal that it framed to ensure labour hire arrangements are not used to undercut employees' pay and conditions.
Global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has taken issue with Adelaide University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart's prediction that the FWC, if takes a strict approach, will approve "very few" bids to negotiate multi-employer deals in the new single-interest bargaining stream.
