Reducing penalty rates, increasing rostering flexibility and boosting the ability of employers to make agreements directly with employees are at the top of employer groups' IR wishlists for the July 2 federal election.
The Productivity Commission, in its final report on the IR system today, says the FWC should be broken up into two bodies, with the new institution to determine minimum wages and awards.
Awards should be limited to one per industry, with the FWC establishing a "new definition for unsociable hours" for each of them and determining "economy-wide" penalty rates, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott has told a Sydney University gathering.
Workers on the Gorgon LNG project will begin voting on Wednesday on whether to take industrial action to push head contractor CB&I to offer shorter roster cycles, at the same time as parliamentary inquiries in WA and Queensland have weighed-up whether new regulations are needed for non-residential workforces.
Ten industry associations and non-government groups, including the AiG, BCA and ACTU, are today calling for net zero emissions of greenhouse gases, ahead of UN climate negotiations in November.
The ACTU will push for the Fair Work Commission's four-year modern award review to create a common clause giving more than two million casual workers the right to become permanent employees.
In a new report, the Business Council of Australia has turned its sights on penalty rates, the permitted content of enterprise agreements and unwanted third party intervention in employment relationships, at the same time advocating that the safety net of pay and conditions be "strongly enforced".
The Senate's Education and Employment Legislation Committee has recommended today that the upper house pass the government's Fair Work Amendment Bill unamended, with the ALP and the Greens tabling separate reports opposing the legislation.
A senior IR lawyer has told the HR Nicholls Society the Fair Work Act should be amended to ban protected industrial action that has serious consequences and to remove entirely the rights of high income earners to strike, in a presentation predicting the decline of the MUA's power and influence.
Oil and gas companies are pushing the federal government to introduce special greenfields agreements lasting more than five years for "major" projects involving at least $50m in capital spending and to boost certainty by giving employers an automatic right to an arbitrated extension of the deals.
