The Reserve Bank has struck a deal with the FSU that pays its 311 agreement-covered employees a 4% annual pay rise – well shy of the 4.5% mark that sets off the central bank’s wage growth alarm bells.
Liberal MP Andrew Robb has today championed Rio Tinto's iron ore operations as a breathtaking example of the turnaround in IR practices able to be achieved by dealing directly with employees - a model that will be fostered by the Howard Government's second wave IR changes.
Emerging "thaw" in union-employer relations at ANZ; bargaining deadlock continues between Westpac and FSU; and union seeks 3% employer contribution to super at NAB.
The new Australian Fair Pay Commission will set national training and apprenticeship pay rates "at levels that ensure they are competitive in the labour market", while awards will no longer be able to regulate the duration of apprenticeships under more second-wave detail announced today by the Prime Minister, John Howard.
The CFMEU (mining & energy division) has today launched its campaign to protect coal miners' long service leave entitlements from the Federal Government's second-wave IR laws, with full-page advertisements in major metropolitan and regional papers.
The Federal Court has today found that the Victorian Government committed two breaches of freedom of association obligations when it refused to engage a demolition contractor on a gasworks remediation site in 2003.
AEU seeking rule change to cover new Australian Technical Colleges; Nationals call for early release of second wave details; Further hearing for Joe McDonald's bid to have permit returned; AIRC says ACTU safety net claim would be handled in the usual way; and PM overestimating real minimum wage increase during Howard Government's term, says Labor.
The ACTU will lodge another minimum wages claim with the AIRC this week, seeking a final safety net increase of around $23 a week before the Federal Government strips the Commission of its powers to set pay rates.
