WA IR Minister Stephen Dawson says he is urgently seeking Federal IR Minister Michaelia Cash's agreement to having the McGowan Government regulate all WA local government workers, following yesterday's passage of legislation overhauling the State IR system.
The newly-announced review of the 1973 Maternity Leave Act provides an opportunity for the Federal Government to resume its role as a pacesetter, according to Sydney University's Professor Marian Baird.
The Productivity Commission will begin consulting next month on its inquiry into the "long-term structural issues" affecting productivity on the waterfront, which requires it to consider "operational costs drivers, including industrial relations", according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
NSW's Modern Slavery Act has won Royal Assent after three years in limbo, imposing reporting obligations on local councils, government agencies and statutory corporations and establishing an independent anti-slavery commissioner.
A full Federal Court has dismissed an on-hire worker's bid to overturn a FWC ruling that it could not force a labour hire company to reinstate him to his former job at client CUB, upholding the tribunal's finding giving primacy to the host employer's right to determine who it allowed on its site.
The Morrison Government's religious discrimination legislation permits faith-based employers to discriminate against workers on the basis of their "religious belief or activity" if it is connected to their position as an employee or prevents them performing inherent requirements.
The Morrison Government has today introduced legislation in response to two Migrant Workers' Taskforce recommendations to make it an offence to pressure temporary migrant workers to breach their visa conditions and to create a new power to ban employers that underpay them.
Unions and employer organisations will be barred from refusing membership or the benefits of it on the basis of religious beliefs or activity, but faith-based organisations will be allowed to engage in biased employment practices under the Morrison Government's proposed religious discrimination legislation, which is likely to be introduced to Federal Parliament tomorrow.
Federal Labor's 'Same Job, Same Pay' legislation introduced into Parliament yesterday has won the endorsement of IR legal expert Anthony Forsyth, who says it represents the "next necessary step" in addressing the undesirable effects of labour hire workers being engaged for lengthy periods on lower wages and conditions than direct employees.
Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese this morning confirmed his determination to make working conditions a major battleground in the upcoming Federal election with his introduction of a private member's bill aimed at erasing the gap between directly-employed and labour hire workers.
