The ACTU estimates around 85% of the 1.7 million award-dependent workers will receive the $17 first-tier safety net increase granted by the AIRC today, while the remainder will receive the $15 second-tier rise.
Drug and alcohol use only affects a small minority of workers and does not warrant subjecting the entire workforce to "a discriminatory and invasive policy" such as random testing, according to AWU national secretary Bill Shorten.
A company that sent its workers home on full pay ahead of a protected lockout might have unlawfully coerced its workforce to make an agreement, following a Federal Court interlocutory ruling today.
Bargaining has come to a halt at the Health Insurance Commission after five months of negotiations, with the CPSU saying the employer now won't talk on key issues until after the Federal Budget is announced next week.
The MBA's head has urged the Democrats not to heavily amend the forthcoming Cole legislation, while one of Cole's counsel assisting has outlined the "absolute minimum" legislative change needed from Cole and suggested Friday's quashing of charges against the CFMEU's Kingham was probably wrong in law.
Big WA construction player Len Buckeridge says a WA Government policy shift that could cost him tens of millions of dollars is payback for him "singing like a canary" to the Cole Royal Commission, but the Gallop Government says his claims are completely misconceived.
The OEA has made it easier for employers to draft and lodge AWAs electronically, at a time when overall lodgments are up by 90% on the same period last year.
