Fast food giant McDonald's is standing by its agreement that trades off lower penalty rates for an over-award hourly rate, despite the FWC rejecting a similar deal for Coles Supermarkets.
The FWC has decried the "normalisation" of a culture of lawlessness within the CFMEU, in decisions refusing two officials' applications for entry permits after they failed the "fit and proper person" test, but granting entry rights to another organiser who allegedly threatened to start a Boral-style "war" against a major construction company.
A former Sydney University academic who failed to honour costs orders of $20,000 for unsuccessful unfair dismissal proceedings must now pay her former employer more than $130,000, after the Federal Circuit Court found her conduct unreasonable and her application vexatious.
A Federal Court judge has accepted that the CFMEU's construction and general division was pursuing a "just" cause when it conducted a four-hour unlawful blockade at Perth's international airport to seek outstanding wages from a building subcontractor, but has nevertheless fined the union and its officials $20,000.
Unions will push for a legislated "no reduction principle" for penalty rates, in contrast to the Labor policy stance of having them decided by the Fair Work Commission.
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.
Left-wing think tank the Australia Institute has launched a new centre that will research and publish on the workplace and labour markets, overseen by an economist who has advised Canada’s auto union for the past two decades.
The NUW and MEAA are among the first unions to change their rules to accept no or low-fee community and associate members since the ACTU's call to transform their membership models by adopting "radical thinking".
