University researchers have told the Senate's work and care inquiry that long working hours are now the main driver of the gender pay gap and recommend capping the working week at 38 hours as a step towards gender equality.
The Senate Work and Care inquiry's Labor and Greens majority is urging the Albanese Government to move swiftly to consider a right to disconnect, make flexibility requests an enforceable right and provide "roster justice" by ensuring workers with variable hours have predictability and certainty, in a 152-page interim report tabled this afternoon.
The ANMF has told the Senate work and care inquiry that ordinary full-time hours should be reduced from 38 hours to 32 to enable workers to achieve a better balance of work and caring responsibilities.
The FSU says it will sue the National Australia Bank after a survey of more than 1000 middle managers revealed widespread excessive unpaid work and "unbearable levels of stress and anxiety", but the bank says there is no such expectation of extra hours.
An IR specialist has told a labour law conference that if employees can demonstrate it will not reduce productivity or service, it might become increasingly difficult for employers to validly refuse flexibility requests for four-day working weeks.
The more than one million retail workers need more stable rosters, better pay and greater job security, along with flexible and affordable childcare, to enable them to meet their caring responsibilities, according to a new university study commissioned by the SDA.
The insights gained from the rapid shift to working from home during COVID-19 could lead to the adoption of a "genuine consultation" requirement under the Fair Work Act's "right to request" flexibility that might start "a conversation aimed at reaching a mutually suitable arrangement", according to a new paper by two leading IR academics.
Real unit labour costs have risen for the third quarter in a row, as coronavirus-driven reductions unwind, while private sector productivity has dropped for the second time in a year, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
Real unit labour costs surged in the December quarter as the economic recovery gathered pace, while profit and wages shares retreated from the record levels recorded in the September quarter, according to ABS national accounts data released today.
FWC President Iain Ross has agreed to consider IR Minister Christian Porter's request that he insert loaded rates into awards for "distressed" industries and will convene initial conferences next week.
