Strong economic growth could drive up wages in 2005, says Reserve; Work and family debate needs new focus on work patterns of fathers, says new study of children's views about their parents' work; Free trade deal threatens domestic jobs, says ACTU; AIRC chairs bargaining between Victorian public service, while prison officers back at work; Substantial frontbench reshuffle expected after Beattie's big win; Federal Magistrates Court now hearing 65% of federal discrimination claims; and ILO says benefits of eliminating child labour outweigh costs.
Pacific National's new agreement, which has been voted up by its 2,400 employees, will introduce a single pay system and simplify rostering, Patrick chair Chris Corrigan told the conglomerate's AGM.
Around 800 call centre and clerical employees of financial services provider GE Capital have received improved leave provisions and a 4% wage increase over three years under a s170LK deal which bypasses the ASU.
A full bench of the AIRC has certified a multi-business agreement between McDonald's and the SDA for the food chain's WA franchises, finding nothing objectionable in a union encouragement clause similar to others knocked out previously by the Commission.
One in four Victorians are low paid workers earning less than $13 an hour, a proportion that has remained unchanged since 2000, according to a new Victorian Government study.
An increase in apprentices is the Victorian branch of the ETU's priority claim in its latest bargaining round with the state's electricity distributors, which it will back up with industrial action beginning next week.
Sydney University and the CPSU-SPSF and the NTEU have finalised a deal that will deliver 2,000 non-academic employees a pay rise of 18% over 42 months, a $1,000 sign-on bonus, casual conversion rights and a pacesetting paid maternity leave entitlement.
A s170LK agreement the AIRC has refused to certify has highlighted the scrutiny non-union agreements face in the Commission as it seeks to assess whether they pass the no disadvantage test.
Labor has amended its IR policy platform to include imposing time limits on the AIRC's determination of unfair dismissal claims and giving preference to suppliers who comply with its IR policies.
A cleaner whose employer exploited her financial dependence on her job to support her family by subjecting her to ongoing sexual harassment has been awarded $20,750 by the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal.