The AFP has won the right to be represented by an external lawyer in a "complex" anti-bullying case involving at least 18 witnesses to be heard by the FWC in a fortnight.
Today's FWC's minimum wage decision brings to an end the quarter-century-long alignment between the National Minimum Wage and the lowest (C14) pay classification in modern awards, while IR Minister Tony Burke says the ruling is the "best ever" result for workers.
A welcome ceremony for new FWC member Sharon Durham has heard the Queensland IR Minister's former chief of staff discovered IR was her thing at 17 years old while working as a services union print room assistant and learnt the 80/20 bargaining rule at the plumbers union.
The FWC's minimum wage panel says resolving gender equality issues for award-reliant workers is now firmly on the tribunal's agenda after identifying "significant issues" in this year's Annual Wage Review, pointing to possible undervaluation that might be a "systemic problem, of pre-FW Act origins".
The FWC's expert panel has this morning approved a 5.75% increase in all award rates and an effective 8.6% rise in the national minimum wage, emphasising that the decision would have a limited effect on the broader economy and would not spur a wage-price spiral.
In what is believed to be the first interlocutory injunction to provide union entry for discussion purposes, the Federal Court has ordered a project head contractor to permit ETU organisers to access labour hire linesworkers on a 900km, $2.2 billion interstate power transmission interconnector.
A ceremony for recently promoted Vice President Ingrid Asbury has heard the former Ai Group manager is "renowned" for her impartiality, while in her own speech she recalled that forming a women's club with Queensland IR Minister Grace Grace decades ago caused their bosses to react with "horror".
The CFMMEU's mining and energy division is taking credit for BHP's revelation today that it will have to backpay almost 30,000 workers in its Australian operations it has shortchanged since 2010, with its share set to cost it $431 million.
The CPSU is seeking to hit Services Australia with industrial action after its members comprehensively rejected a sector-wide pay offer of 10.5% over three years, while the APSC's chief negotiator has set out an additional proposal to cut wage disparities between agencies from 26% to 18%.
A foreign exchange dealer has come up empty-handed after he overturned his dismissal on appeal, with the FWC on re-hearing the case taking little time to reject his claim that the "punishment did not fit the crime".
