The ACCI, ARA and NFF have called for the Fair Pay Commission to impose a wage freeze when it hands down its annual minimum wage decision in July, while the AiG has asked for an $8-a-week rise and a cut in taxes for the low paid.
The $21-a-week increase the ACTU is seeking in the Fair Pay Commission's 2009 minimum wage review is affordable in the current economic circumstances and won't reduce employment, secretary Jeff Lawrence says.
The Fair Work Bill has passed through the Senate, after the Government reached an agreement with Senator Steve Fielding on phasing-in its definition of small business for unfair dismissal purposes.
Employer groups have criticised as "one-sided" new take-home pay orders in the Government's transitional IR bill and called on the Senate to address their concerns on increased labour costs stemming from award modernisation.
The Government has, as expected, refused to accept the Senate's amendments to the Fair Work Bill's definition of small business for unfair dismissal purposes and has sent the legislation back to the Senate, where there is still room for a last-minute deal with Senators Nick Xenophon and Steve Fielding.
Family First's Senator Steve Fielding has this morning made a concession on his unfair dismissal stance ahead of the amended Fair Work Bill being returned to the House of Representatives - but he has still not agreed to the Government's position, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has again warned was non-negotiable.
The fate of the Fair Work Bill hangs in the balance this morning, after the Senate passed changes to the legislation’s unfair dismissal provisions that the Government maintains it won’t accept.
The Senate is set to tonight debate the crucial issue on which the Government remains unwilling to compromise but has so far failed to get the support it needs - what defines a small business for unfair dismissal purposes. This follows a day in which senators dealt with a raft of less controversial amendments to the Fair Work Bill.
Fair Work Australia will have the power to make "take-home pay orders" to ensure modern awards don't render workers worse off under transitional legislation introduced by Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard this morning.
Transitional legislation introduced today by Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard gives Fair Work Australia a broad power to make "representation orders" to avert demarcation disputes, provides for "conditional termination agreements" to help employees move off AWAs and repeals the Workplace Relations Act.
