Private sector unit labour costs in Australia will rise by 5% in 2005, a faster rate of growth than anywhere in the developed world, according to the OECD, while a leading investment bank says the recent four quarters of trend decline in labour productivity is Australia's worst efficiency setback in two decades.
The SA IRC has endorsed a new consent severance pay deal struck between the State's peak union and employer bodies, but in a curious result, it won't have test case standing.
The Federal Court has cleared the way for a discrimination claim to proceed against Hawker de Havilland Aerospace Pty Ltd, with unions alleging the company directed bonus payments from a Boeing group share trust scheme only to non-members.
The "double shift" borne by women who combine paid work with a disproportionate amount of domestic tasks is likely to become a "triple shift" as they have to also take on elder care, Sex Discrimination Commission Pru Goward warned today as she launched a new discussion paper on better sharing of paid and unpaid work between men and women.
Wage subsidies, greater employee choice in working hours, more training opportunities and universal access to job search assistance should be considered by the Federal Government to address populating ageing, a new OECD report says.
Around 30,000 Telstra employees will vote in coming weeks on a proposed new enterprise agreement that restricts annual wage rises to 2.5%, but locks in generous public sector conditions ahead of the planned full privatisation of the telco.
