Australia needs a new approach to setting minimum wages, and should systematically reassess what it takes to participate in society "fully and with dignity", according to the national president of one of the country's biggest unions.
Childcare workers employed by Victorian local government authorities will be the pay pacesetters across the public and private sector if an AIRC full bench sanctions a consent position put to it today.
Workers don't believe employers will deliver on what they really want - which is recognition of their contribution, more manageable workloads and job security - and now focus even more on wages as the symbol of workplace fairness, an ACIRRT conference was told yesterday.
The CEO of Qantas, Geoff Dixon, yesterday acknowledged that the airline's hard-line IR agenda meant it was effectively caught in the global "race to the bottom", but maintained there were no other choices.
Australia's recent economic growth was achieved on the back of inequality and work intensification, with economic risk shifted directly onto employees, according to secretary of the ACTU, Greg Combet.
Consent deal struck in child care pay equity/work value case; Westpac head calls for business to work on boosting labour participation rate; and AMWU rubbishes AIG claims about today's metals stoppage.
A new critique of business management blames soaring salaries for captains of industry on a "cult of the CEO" that wrongly assumes they can be the sole author of a company's fortunes.
