The Queensland branch of the ETU has negotiated pay rises averageing about 10% a year with 20 contractors employing around 1,500 members, in deals that exploit the State's shortage of qualified electricians.
Labour economist Mark Wooden - a long-time supporter of the Howard Government's workplace relations agenda - has sided with ACTU secretary Greg Combet, saying the proposed second wave IR changes are biased against collective agreements.
Howard again refuses to guarantee workers won't be worse off; Crosby's new book says unions must lift their annual fees to ACTU's 2003 benchmark of $468; Male working lives cut by ten years between 1966 and 1991, AFPC to cut wages, says Gregory; and PC head says restrictions on labour hire and casual employment will hamper employment of mature workers.
Big American prison management company GEO Group has failed in its bid to terminate a bargaining period for prison guards at its Fulham Prison in Victoria.
Employment Advocate Peter McIlwain has defended his office and the AWAs it approves from union and academic claims of exploitation in submissions to the Senate inquiry into industrial agreements.
Family First Senator Steve Fielding today called for an inquiry into penalty rates, including how to compensate workers who could lose overtime and shift allowances under the Federal Government's second wave industrial legislation.
If the Howard Government blocks the ACTU's 2006 Living Wage claim, the Queensland Government might bring the states together to look at ways to ensure nationally-consistent rates of pay for workers remaining under the state systems, Queensland IR Minister Tom Barton said today.
In a reversal of the way the game is usually played - and something WA CFMEU (construction division) secretary, Kevin Reynolds, says has never happened to his union before - the John Holland Group has today initiated bargaining periods against the CFMEU on two projects in Perth.
