BHP Coal has applied to terminate three enterprise agreements in NSW in addition to two in Queensland, as both states face further bargaining strikes next week plus at least a further two months of rolling stoppages.
The higher minimum standards in Victoria's new IR bill - which received its second reading yesterday - would boost aggregate wages across all Victorian employees by just 0.21%, but could lead to the loss of 600 jobs in the short term and 1900 over a decade, according to economic analysis released by the State Government yesterday.
Trend average weekly ordinary time earnings are now increasing at 5.4% a year, according to the ABS, but a leading wages analyst says the data is "absurd" and "implausible".
The Office of the Employment Advocate is carrying out a review of its operations, focusing on what extra activities or improvements to existing services employers and employees want.
In an important decision on workplace pranks, the NSW IRC has found in favour of two long-serving fitters who were dismissed after an incident involving a young trades assistant.
Boards of public companies will be closely watching today's Commonwealth Bank AGM, when the FSU's community-based campaign against the bank's IR, executive remuneration and social policies comes to a head.
Unions will seek compensation for the effect of the GST on inflation, despite the first post tax-change CPI figures showing an increase in inflation of 6.1% in the past year and 3.7% in the September quarter - well below the forecast.
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has released a letter from law firm Clayton Utz saying the Government's Fair Employment Bill "should have no unreasonable impact" on employers who treat their employees fairly.
A wage surge in public sector enterprise agreements has pushed average bargaining pay increases to 4% per employee for the first time since 1998, according to a preliminary analysis by HSBC.
