In a rare move, three of Australia's leading employer organisations yesterday issued a joint statement criticising the move towards greater IR regulation by unions and the ALP.
Nearly a decade after the introduction of formalised enterprise bargaining, more than two out of five employees in businesses with at least five workers have their pay set by registered agreements, while just one in five employees relies solely on award pay rates, according to new survey findings.
GST clauses in enterprise agreements are still rare, but "front-loading" of wage rises is increasingly popular, perhaps because of fears of a GST-related inflation spike, according to a new analysis of bargaining wage movements.
The IRC has certified a non-union deal covering employees at US-based second-hand clothing chain store Savers, despite initially finding it failed the no disadvantage test.
South Australian Workplace Relations Minister Robert Lawson has rebutted a Workplace Express report that employers and unions were concerned the Government had gone against convention by refusing to follow the recommendations of a tripartite panel for two appointments to the State IRC.
The NSW IRC has upheld the sacking of an employee who repeatedly exposed himself to female colleagues and viewed pornography at work to intimidate them, finding the sexual harassment was "insidious in the extreme" and of "sickening proportions".
The long-running Queensland health dispute looks close to being over, with all unions bar the building trades group suspending industrial action and agreeing to put a draft EA struck with the health department to a ballot.
While the MTFU is claiming ongoing success in getting companies to commit to the Campaign 2000 break-out group agreement, the metal industry unions are also signing off on deals that deliver less than the 15% pay rise they want, and, at the same time, some employers are reporting success striking agreements directly with employees.
The MD of the Australian arm of a multinational company has won an order stopping his employer from shifting assets offshore to avoid paying his claim for $14m in damages for an unfair contract.