The ACTU will today promote a blueprint for "deep structural reform" to improve the lot of working women, which includes axing the use of a "male comparator" that has delayed an equal pay case for early childhood teachers since 2013.
Labour costs have fallen for the second successive quarter to leave an annual decline of 1.2% in trend terms, while productivity has continued to rise, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
The Full Federal Court has dismissed an employer's attempted challenge to an arbitrated decision by the FWC, finding that an enterprise agreement at Victoria's Yallourn power station and coal mine provided for "final and binding" dispute resolution.
The FWC has tossed out a new deal put forward by a "sophisticated industrial player" after finding it failed to spell out to four long-term workers the numerous terms that fell short of the industry award.
The voluntary administrators of food delivery business Foodora Australia Pty Ltd say the process will give the company "essential breathing space", which includes a statutory stay on landmark legal proceedings testing whether its riders are employees or contractors.
Citing more complex demands such as data harvesting, the IEU has in addition to its bid for an equal remuneration order on behalf of 15,000 early childhood teachers now lodged an alternative work value claim to increase salary levels by between 11% and 34%, or to implement a uniform 25% pay rise.
In a significant win for FWO efforts to extend liability to advisors involved in underpayments, a Full Federal Court has today dismissed an accountancy firm's appeal against penalties imposed last year for failing to ensure a client met its award obligations.
Five migrant fruit pickers at the centre of a $10 million Federal Court claim against a labour hire company and its owners are seeking to be recognised as casuals, alleging their contracts for piecework were invalid and based average take home pay on an unrealistic workload.
On the second of 16 days of FWC hearings into an IEU equal pay claim for early childhood teachers, the union is blaming low wages for a skill shortage in the overwhelmingly female-dominated sector, while the ACTU says the case will test whether the Fair Work Act's equal pay principle can deliver.
Two landmark class actions allege that a BHP Billiton subsidiary induced two labour hire companies to unlawfully engage hundreds of coal mineworkers as casuals and pay them less than the industry award.
