In a move that the NTEU warns could have a "chilling effect" on underpayment claims across the economy, the Federal Court has stayed its attempt to claw back millions of dollars on behalf of casual and sessional staff while Monash University pursues a FWC bid to retrospectively vary its agreement.
As she prepares to step down after 12 years, the world's top union leader, former ACTU president Sharan Burrow, has hailed the Albanese Labor Government for moving swiftly to overhaul Australia's IR laws, including the planned introduction of multi-employer bargaining.
The FWC has upheld Victoria Police's rejection of a transit officer's flexibility request because it would exacerbate already "bleak" safety issues arising from understaffing in Melbourne's most crime-affected region.
Towage company Svitzer is set to lock out its harbour tugboat workforce, claiming it has been forced into it by continuing disruptive protected action by three maritime unions.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has warned that the prescriptive amendments sought by business and employer groups to the Secure Jobs Bill's multi-employer stream could render it as "ineffective and unusable" as the 13-year old Act's low paid bargaining stream, which hasn't been used since 2014 because parties "gave up on it".
A senior FWC member has described a public transport agency's vaccination policy as "pressur[ing]" workers to "give up [the] fundamental right" to bodily integrity, before ordering it to pay five train drivers sidelined because of their non-compliance.
While the Albanese Government remains hopeful it can make multi-employer bargaining changes more palatable to win Senate support, a labour law expert says onerous requirements will limit the effectiveness of the expanded single-interest stream.
The Albanese Government will today table its foreshadowed amendments to the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill, as it seeks to provide "more comfort" to key Independent Senator David Pocock on proposed multi-employer bargaining reforms.
The ACTU has told a Senate inquiry into the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill that it will make it even harder for workers to take protected action, while the BCA says multi-employer bargaining should be restricted to low-paid sectors.
RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan says the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill is an "Orwellian attack" worse than Work Choices that will reduce workers' ability to strike, tear the BOOT apart and diminish the voice of employees and employers while doing nothing for casuals or wages.
