ACTU leader Sally McManus in calling for a "living wage" is reviving the name the peak body gave its minimum wage claims after the Howard Coalition Government came to power 21 years ago, while invoking a principle enunciated in Justice HB Higgins' landmark 1907 Harvester judgment.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union has hailed today's termination by the FWC of the Domino's Pizza enterprise agreement, saying it will return tens of millions of dollars to employees.
The FWC has refused to approve an AWU-backed agreement covering hundreds of Cairns casino workers after warning that its loaded rates and an annual reconciliation undertaking would leave employees covered by four modern awards worse off.
Griffin Coal and the CFMEU have reached agreement on a survival deal involving "significant personal sacrifices" for production employees that the company will put to its lenders and the union to members, after interest-based negotiations since January under the aegis of the FWC's new approaches program.
The FWC has rejected an IR practitioner's bid to shift from casual to continuing employment, finding that even if he was eligible, his employer's agreement provided no implicit "right" to convert.
ACTU leader Sally McManus is set to begin campaigning for major changes to minimum wage-setting, including tying it to a proportion of the median wage, along the lines of the UK's model.
The Turnbull Government might be preparing the ground to maintain the confidentiality of information relating to the Federal Court proceedings in which former ABC Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss admitted breaching the Fair Work Act.
The FWC has granted an employer legal representation for its jurisdictional objections to a rostering dispute lodged by a self-represented employee who alleges in another case that he was sacked after challenging a proposed enterprise agreement.
The ABCC has reviewed its legal expenditure after an "overspend" in the past financial year that included a blowout to almost $11 million in billings for external advice, representing about a third of its $34 million budget.
