The Federal Government has urged Fair Work Australia's minimum wage panel to deliver a real wage increase to 1.45 million low-paid employees, after their pay had "gone backwards" following the Fair Pay Commission's decision last year to freeze minimum wages. It also advocates that FWA's President refer to an internal inquiry any equal pay questions arising from submissions.
The Federal Court has ordered a global oil and gas industry recruiter to give a forensic expert access to its IT systems to search for sensitive information it allegedly acquired from a rival company's former managing director.
Key employer groups will urge Fair Work Australia to lift minimum wages by less than a third of the $27 a week sought by the ACTU, with the AiG advocating a $12-a-week increase and ACCI rises of between $10.50 and $12.50.
The CPSU (PSU group) will seek a single, comprehensive APS-wide agreement that provides a common platform of pay and conditions, while still allowing some agency-level negotiation, when current agreements expire in mid-2011.
Is overtime one of the terms and conditions subject to the transitional provisions in modern awards? The answer is "yes", "no", or "it's a grey area", depending on who you ask - a situation that has led to a series of meetings between the ACTU, peak employer bodies and the FWO in an attempt to end the confusion.
South Australia's Liberal Party has drawn criticism from federal Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard for promising to withdraw a large part of the State's private sector workforce from the national IR system if it wins government in tomorrow's election.
Uncertainty over the validity of "preferred hours" clauses following inconsistent FWA rulings - including a key decision this week approving the clauses - could soon be resolved after a Fair Work Australia full bench yesterday heard employer appeals against the rejection of several deals containing preferred hours provisions.
CPSU secretary Stephen Jones will today resign to focus on running for federal parliament, ahead of the union's governing council today considering strategies for the new centralised bargaining system in the APS and a recent growing gap between its recruitment gains and losses.
Unions will seek a flat $27 safety net increase - including an element of catch-up - in the first minimum wage review under the Fair Work Act, ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence told the National Press Club today.
