Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce yesterday claimed Qantas workers in some of its employee groups were paid up to 50% more than their peers at Virgin Australia, but an analysis of base rates shows the differentials are relatively narrow, and sometimes favour the smaller airline's workers.
AMMA chief executive Steve Knott has used the opening of the Victorian IR Society's annual conference to criticise the Gillard Government's appointment of members with union backgrounds to Fair Work Australia.
A Fair Work Australia full bench majority has accepted the lawfulness of clauses in the Victorian electrical contracting industry's pattern agreement that the Ai Group sought to strike down.
Ninety-minute retail shifts begin, as stay bid rejected; Coal workers overwhelmingly vote down direct BHP offer; Victorian nurses set to join wage cap fight; Victorian police step up campaign; Union rates hotels' treatment of employees; $8500 penalty for failing to pay annual leave; IR skills course in Brisbane; and President's speech now available.
CFMEU national president Tony Maher has called on manufacturers to stand up to mining companies and has criticised employers for promoting cuts to employee entitlements as a solution to the "big problem" that, "left to its own devices, the mining boom will kill manufacturing".
The Federal Government will reintroduce its construction industry legislation during the current parliamentary session, Workplace Relations Minister Senator Chris Evans has announced.
FWA rebuffs bid for payment of stood-down workers; Unions reject Qantas claim of "coordinated" industrial action; and No baggage fees as Jetstar workers take action.
The FWO is shifting its underpayment case load to focus more on matters involving deliberate "wage theft", according to Ombudsman Nick Wilson, who says the organisation has also begun making more information available about its investigations and prosecutions.
