Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins in her report of the national inquiry into sexual harassment has recommended the FWC gain new powers to issue orders to halt the conduct, similar to its ability to make anti-bullying orders.
The gap between male and female full-time earnings has narrowed slightly over the past year, but there has been a substantial rise in adoption of domestic violence policies and leave by employers, according to the WGEA.
An FWC full bench has rejected IR Minister Christian Porter's bid to review an already-approved agreement on the basis that it contains discriminatory terms, while it has allowed changes "entirely disposing" of any lingering ambiguities.
A national regulator is needed to enforce equal opportunity laws and "wave a big stick" at employers failing to address workplace discrimination, a new report recommends.
Employers should be subject to a stronger onus to prevent s-xual harassment under the existing positive duty to provide safe workplaces under OHS laws, while the Fair Work Act should be amended to include explicit anti-harassment rights, according to Victoria Legal Aid.
The FWC has approved a Melbourne fire brigade agreement after it accepted undertakings that override terms that hindered workers going part-time and allowed their union to block flexible working arrangements, while a challenge is still on foot to an earlier finding that discriminatory deals can still get up.
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.
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.
Workplace Minister Craig Laundy has been granted permission to intervene in the approval of a new enterprise agreement covering the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade, despite the UFU's criticism of it as an "unprecedented hijack" of the process.
