Labour shortages might be starting to drive up wages, with today's ABS data showing a trend quarterly increase in pay rates excluding bonuses of 1.1% for the March quarter and 3.9% annually - the highest year-on-year growth since the Bureau first released the statistics in 1998.
AIRC mediation trial commences; Living wage parties lodge post-Budget submissions, but no hearing expected; Howard Government launches employee share ownership kit; AWU wants collective deal for Newcastle steelworkers; and AIRC stays ABC case.
The Howard Government should exempt small businesses from the looming super choice regime, rather than unfair dismissal laws, Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley told a small business summit in Sydney today.
Will Tracey, the former ACTU organiser for the Pilbara, has failed in his bid to become the AWU's WA branch secretary, going down to incumbent, Tim Daly, in a close result.
Working parents feel rushed and a substantial number would like to do less hours, but on the whole they believe work has a positive impact on them and, to a lesser degree, on their children, a new major study has shown.
AIRC resists CEPU push to reinstate 12-hour shifts at Telstra; Federal Court injuncts alleged secondary boycott on Perth construction site; Tribunal upholds sacking of worker who told manager where he'd stick his finger; Otis agreement rejected for imposing terms on labour hire company; and Labor says PM's comments highlight his reluctance to guarantee workers won't be worse off.
Dual state and federal IR laws are “not a major handicap” to labour productivity and don’t provide justification for the Federal Government to urgently legislate for a hostile takeover of state systems, Sydney University Dean of Law Ron McCallum told the NSW IR Society Conference in the Blue Mountains today.
The Federal Government may be pushing the virtues of individual and enterprise-based bargaining, but one of Australia's major road transport players, Patrick Corporation, is exploring the option of reverting from site-by-site bargaining to a single national transport deal with the TWU.
A Federal Court full bench has found the AIRC has the power to direct Sensis to allow employees to be represented by a union in bargaining negotiations for a s170LK non-union deal, while two judges have described the employer’s case as “much ado about very little”.