Australia's low-paid workers were today awarded their biggest safety-net rise yet, with a full bench of the IRC granting an $18-a-week increase in all award rates.
Some 2,000 Qantas maintenance workers have voted up a deal that provides a minimum 1.35% increase from January 1 this year, when all other Qantas employees were enduring a wage freeze.
The Queensland Council of Unions expects that dental assistants and librarians will be the first employees to present claims to the State IRC that their work has been undervalued on a gender basis following the Commission's approval of its Equal Remuneration Principle.
Federal Labor commits to paid maternity leave and boosting flexibility for working families; Ricegrowers dispute settled; and IRC refuses s127 order for CSL Yarra.
Employers, rather than the public, should guarantee employee entitlements and they should be protected via industry trust funds or insurance schemes, Democrats' IR spokesperson Andrew Murray told a Canberra conference today.
Enterprise bargaining has failed in the construction industry and new employment arrangements specific to the industry should be legislated, a large number of construction industry players have told the Cole Royal Commission in private consultations.
Two Southcorp Wines employees will retain a total of $51,000 compensation for their unfair dismissal, despite an IRC full bench finding technical errors in the Commission's initial ruling on their fate.
Photocopier technicians at Canon Australia will strike for 48 hours this week amid union claims that the employer refused to give workers more than a 1% pay rise.
