The former Labor Government's changes to the modern award objective have made it impossible for 24/7 industries such as hospitality to successfully prosecute cases to abolish penalty rates and should be scrapped, according to the peak body for restaurant employers.
The NUW says there is no basis for a Linfox Australia submission to the Productivity Commission that recommends a radical overhaul of entry laws and cites a "case study" that criticises the union's conduct at a major retailer's warehouse.
The Office of the Australian Small Business Commissioner is pushing for the full adult wage to be paid from the age of 18, questioning the rationale behind the IR system "deeming adulthood to commence at 21".
The Senate has agreed to a wide-ranging inquiry into Australia's working visa regime, just a week after the Coalition announced extensive changes to the 457 temporary skilled program following a panel review.
The head of Networks NSW, which owns the power "poles and wires" entities that are to be privatised if the Coalition wins Saturday's NSW election, is pushing for FWC approval of agreements to be conditional on them undergoing an objective "productivity test" and is backing calls for the creation of a separate FWC appeals jurisdiction.
The AiG has called for sweeping changes to the Fair Work laws, including stronger management rights for employers, penalties for lawyers who encourage speculative dismissal or general protections claims, the return of individual contracts, and cashing-out of long service leave.
Just months after retiring as a senior Fair Work Commission member, Brendan McCarthy has launched an extraordinary attack on the tribunal's role and operation, claiming it is not the appropriate body to establish minimum standards, its members lack economic competence, and it misallocates resources.
The Heydon Royal Commission has begun referring its interim findings against unions and individuals to police and other investigatory authorities, including ASIC and the ACCC.
Forty years from now, Australia's ageing population will have reduced the country's total workforce participation rate to 62%, income growth will have slowed, and the average annual wage will be $117,300, according to the Treasury's latest long-term forecast, released today.
A group of leading IR academics has made a preemptive strike against any attempt to use the Coalition's "freedoms" inquiry to diminish the immunity from common law liability conferred by the Fair Work Act's protected industrial action provisions.