In a backflip, minority parties including Pauline Hanson's One Nation have joined Labor in condemning a claimed “lack of empathy” by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for Australian workers who rely on penalty rates to make ends meet. Last night's (March 28) motion comes just days before Labor's introduction of a Private Senator's Bill ca...
Labor passes Senate urgency motion on penalty rates
↧
↧
Raft of recommendations to reverse employment weakness
Investing in a national apprentice program, promoting STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) qualifications among workers, enhancing workforce capability in high-growth and innovative sectors, and lifting the skilled migration cap would curb weaknesses in employment, participation, profitability and incomes growth, the Australian Industr...
↧
Editorial Team
Editor: Annie Lawson (03) 8684 2127, 0422 567 004, annie.lawson@tr.com Chief Journalist: Gerard May Journalist: Steve Andrew Managing Editor: Peter Schwab Twitter:@WorkforceTR
↧
Minimum wage boost needed to compensate for penalty rate cuts
With the blowtorch shifting to the national minimum wage as the next IR battlefront, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) has argued the impact of Sunday and public holiday penalty rate cuts will necessitate a double digit increase to the national minimum wage. In its submission to the Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review...
↧
Govt advocates a ‘cautious approach' to min wage
The Federal Government pointed to the “diverse” household financial arrangements of low paid workers, with a “significant” proportion of them coming from “higher income households”, to justify its call for a “cautious approach”. “The panel should take a cautious approach, taking into account the...
↧
↧
EA termination stirs ‘infuriated' Fletcher strikers
Some 42 days into a strike the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) and Fletcher Insulation are heading to Fair Work Commission (FWC) conciliation after they failed to resolve their bitter enterprise agreement (EA) dispute today (March 30). AWU Victorian Branch secretary Ben Davis told Workforce Daily the parties had met to resolve five matters after th...
↧
United Voice stops Wilson cutting pay by 13%
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has blocked Wilson Security Pty Ltd from making a “significant decrease” in the weekly earnings of Melbourne Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) security guards. In May 2016 Wilson Security first “proposed” to stop applying a 20% afternoon shift allowance to 12 hour shifts that started at ...
↧
CFMEU WA cops 10-fold increase in fines over Perth airport blockade
A Full Court of the Federal Court has massively increased fines imposed on the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union WA (CFMEU WA) and key officials including Joe McDonald for their illegal 2013 blockade of the $80m Perth International Airport expansion project. Upping total fines from $21,225 to $242,000, Justices John Dowsett and Steven Rares...
↧
Employer's fault worker didn't know corporate ID: Court
The Federal Circuit Court (FCC) has allowed a worker's adverse action claim to proceed despite the respondent's jurisdictional argument she had wrongly named him and failed to identify the correct employer. The court held Vanessa Wrightson's failure was due to James Hassell having incorrectly identified the employer in legal documents relating to h...
↧
↧
McCormick seeking ‘competitive compensation'
McCormick Foods Australia has vowed to provide “competitive compensation” to its employees despite pay negotiations remaining deadlocked with workers who took strike action at the company's Melbourne operations. The Melbourne food company, that owns brands including Aeroplane Jelly and supplies spices to KFC and McDonald's, told Workfor...
↧
Job vacancies up: ABS
Total job vacancies in February 2017 were 186,400, an increase of 2.6% from November 2016, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released today (March 30). There were 168,400 job vacancies in the private sector in February 2017, up 2.6% from November 2016. The ABS said there were 18,000 public sector job vacancies in February 2...
↧
Editorial Team
Editor: Annie Lawson (03) 8684 2127, 0422 567 004, annie.lawson@tr.com Chief Journalist: Gerard May Journalist: Steve Andrew Managing Editor: Peter Schwab Twitter: @WorkforceTR
↧
Remarkable why FWO not going harder on employer: Court
WFD: The Federal Circuit Court (FCC) has fined a company that packs chocolates for Cadbury and Mars and one of its directors more than $220,000 for underpaying three vulnerable migrant workers. The FCC said it was remarkable, given the employer's own admissions, that the Fair Work Ombudsmen (FWO) had not investigated the matter further just because...
↧
↧
Court hits ‘slavery' employer with $227k fine
WFD: The Federal Circuit Court (FCC) has fined a labour hire company and its director $227,300 for “serious exploitation” of foreign workers. Judge Michael Jarrett found 22 Vanuatu seasonal workers were “lured” to work in Australia in 2014 by Maroochy Sunshine Pty's sole director Emmanuel Bani and had been underpaid a total ...
↧
VP Watson's withholds draft domestic violence decision
WFD: An internal memo the Fair Work Commission (FWC) released today has revealed ex-vice president Graeme Watson refused to hand over his conclusion on the Australian Council of Trade Unions' claim for a domestic violence leave clause as part of the four-yearly modern award review. Conclusion not forthcoming In the March 23, 2017 memo to President ...
↧
Hard for employer to claim foul after agreeing to water-down restraint
WFD: A Supreme Court case shows how an employer's attitude back-fired on it after it went easy on a manager who told it they intended going into business for themselves in the same field. Rather than sticking by the employment contract's six-month ban on any form of competition, school uniform manufacturer and importer Georges Apparel offered busin...
↧
Awards targeted for plain language rewrite
WFD: The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has earmarked another 10 modern awards in need of a plain language redraft. The aged care, building and construction general on-site, children's and cleaning services awards are among those to be included in the second tranche of awards as part of the FWC's plain language project. Others include: the fast food in...
↧
↧
FWC paves way for bullying matter
WFD: The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has allowed an employee to proceed with her anti-bullying case after ruling her employer was a constitutionally-covered entity. The employer, youthconnections.com.au, disputed it was a trading entity because it was registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. However, Senior Deputy Pre...
↧
Youth underemployment peaks
WFD: Underemployment among young people has soared to its highest level in 40 years since recording of such data began, a Brotherhood of St Laurence report has found. About 18% or 377,000 of young workers aged 15-24 were underemployed and 13% or 282,000 were unemployed. The report said underemployment had “become an entrenched feature of the ...
↧
Appetite ‘not there' for federal regulatory reform for gig workers
WFD: A lack of federal will has stalled much-needed regulatory reform aimed at extending entitlements and protections to gig economy workers, an outgoing senior Fair Work Commission (FWC) member has said. Senior Deputy President Jennifer Acton, who last week announced her resignation from the FWC, said she had observed “little discussion̶...
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
