The Federal Government and the ACCI will tomorrow seek to intervene to support the MBA's bid to have adjourned a long-running application by the CFMEU (construction and general division) to increase award rates for apprentices.
The effect of the ageing workforce will start to bite in the next five years, with 195,000 fewer workers available in 2010 than there otherwise would have been, according to new research commissioned by DEWR.
Beazley warns cuts in hospitality pay rates will leave workers relying on tips as Senator Joyce calls for penalty rate changes; BCA begins latest phase of its advertising campaign; HR management crucial in a pandemic; Productivity stalls on docks, but new investment to provide boost, says ACCC; Report debunks generational differences in the workplace; Australian employers failing to provide performance management training; and Recruitment company recognised as top employer for mature age workers.
An employer that failed to provide light duties to a heavily pregnant employee has been ordered to pay her $7,500 in compensation, while in a separate case, an anti-discrimination tribunal has refused to grant an exemption to allow a Baptist Church agency to only employ people with certain Christian beliefs.
Wage growth in federal enterprise agreements remains strong, edging up to 4.1% a year, largely as a result of substantial pay rises in the public sector.
The radical Work Choices bill is an unjustified assault on the cultural, economic, social, institutional, legal, political and constitutional underpinnings of work in Australia, according to the Democrats, while the Greens say it fails the Government's own benchmark of fairness, simplicity and choice.
Shadow IR Minister, Stephen Smith, today said the Senate was doing on IR what it did with the Telstra sale - acting as a "rubber stamp" for the Government.
Employers should be preparing their management strategies now for workplace absence rates as high as 50% if a bird flu pandemic occurs in Australia, according to leading researchers and academics at an Australian Industry Group conference this morning.
The Work Choices legislation is so flawed that any amendments would "only marginally mitigated the intended and unintended consequences", according to the report on the bill by Opposition senators.