The FWC will survey employers on potential award changes to provide workers with greater flexibility to juggle jobs and care, including working from home, as part of its modern awards review.
If the Federal Government removes all barriers to childcare, 118,000 full-time workers could be added to the labour force, according to a draft Productivity Commission report.
As employer and industry bodies today amplify their pitch to block Closing Loopholes amendments, including those to be tabled tomorrow by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke, leading IR law academic Andrew Stewart has undercut their argument that the legislation is too complex for small businesses to understand.
The FWC has reserved its decision on the first contested intractable bargaining case to be heard by a single member, after service provider Ventia told the tribunal it should find negotiations for outsourced Defence aviation firefighting operations in Queensland have reached an impasse after 15 months of talks and more than 18 months of industrial action.
An intellectual property firm fumbled an employee's summary dismissal when it switched from highlighting his deficient performance and conduct to "dishonesty" over time spent browsing the internet "for items of personal interest", the FWC has found.
After chairing negotiations between resources giant Esso and the AWU, long-serving FWC member Bernie Riordan has today issued a recommendation that the company provide a 22% pay rise over almost four years to end a decade-long deadlock for its Bass Strait platform operators and that in return the workforce move to a new roster.
The CPSU is recommending the Albanese Government's "bolstered" final pay offer to its members, after winning an additional lump sum payment that brings the first year's 4% increase forward by 12 weeks.
The Minns Labor Government has introduced IR changes that "remove the power to cap wages for good" and replace it with a "mutual gains bargaining" system, while also boosting the NSW IRC's powers and restoring it as an integrated court and tribunal.
Award wage increases have responded to rather than contributed to higher price inflation, and although the tight labour market has brought higher pay growth, it is "not enough to be a threat to slowing price inflation", according to a leading labour market economist.
Former Toll subsidiary Team Global Express has avoided anti-bullying orders through the resignation of a perpetrator and taking significant measures to remove the risk of further substandard conduct, but the FWC has called on it to address a "failure of local leadership".
