The union movement's support for a national IR system based on the corporations power plus its new collective bargaining position are at the heart of its IR legislation policy - unanimously endorsed by ACTU Congress in Melbourne yesterday. But the 37-page document - which unions will lobby the ALP to adopt - also deals in detail with a raft of other key matters, including the AIRC's role, minimum standards, unfair dismissal, freedom of association, independent contractors, trade practices law, employee entitlement protection, and which government bodies should go and which should stay.
In its first minimum pay determination today, the Fair Pay Commission has delivered a substantial pay rise approaching 4% a year to workers on the federal minimum wage.
The Federal Government and unions today welcomed the Fair Pay Commission's first minimum wage determination but business leaders attacked the decision as a $2 billion cost on employers without any required increases in productivity.
In its first minimum wage determination, the Fair Pay Commission has awarded pay increases of between $22.04 and $27.36 a week to more than a million workers covered by award pay scales, to take effect from December 1.
Unions will step up their multi-million dollar television campaign against the Work Choices laws in the lead up to next year's federal election, with the launch today of a CFMEU advertisement highlighting the coercive powers of the BCII Act.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet has acknowledged the apprehension some union delegates feel about the peak council's new IR policy - unanimously endorsed this morning - which relies heavily on the corporations power and weakens the role of the state systems.
A proposed IR policy that provides for a default national IR system, but gives parties the chance to opt in to state systems, is set to be voted up today at the ACTU's triennial Congress after state union peak bodies today indicated it had their support.
The ACTU will be looking for more money from its affiliates as it steps up its fight against Work Choices in the lead up to next year's election, ACTU secretary Greg Combet made clear today.
Opposition Leader Kim Beazley today pledged federal Labor's support for a national IR system, promised to abolish employer greenfields agreements, and released details of a union-friendly collective bargaining policy at the ACTU 's triennial national Congress that began in Melbourne this morning.
