Labor leader Bill Shorten heads into the final days of the election campaign promising the biggest change to Australia's workplace laws in 15 years, built around his pitch that the poll is a "referendum" on wages and living costs.
A University of Sydney lecturer sacked after superimposing a swastika on an Israeli flag in teaching materials and social media posts is relying on political opinion protections in the Fair Work Act and academic freedom clauses, claiming he was really dismissed for challenging his treatment.
The FWC has rejected an employer's claim it did not summarily dismiss an apprentice by text, describing a later email in which the teenager was told "we are holding your position open" as a "retroactive" attempt to characterise the worker as having quit.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has pledged to hold a national summit between business and unions if he wins the federal election on Saturday, in another nod to the Hawke era of consensus-building in the 1980s.
The head of La Trobe University's Law School has accused the institution's HR executive director of acting beyond her remit and taking disproportionate disciplinary action in breach of its agreement by suspending him following complaints by an IR academic and a law lecturer.
Annual growth in private sector rates of pay excluding bonuses has hit a four-year high for the second successive quarter, rising 2.4% to March, according to ABS data released today.
Federal Labor has pledged to establish a new low-cost small claims jurisdiction to deal with wage underpayments, which will "sit alongside" the Fair Work Commission.
The FWC should pay heed to headline inflation running at 1.3% when awarding this year's minimum wage increase, according to the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
