The FWC is canvassing whether it should rule early next year on the United Voice request to follow the UK's lead in setting a medium-term target for the minimum wage.
Australian authorities are seeking assurances that the owners and operators of a coal carrier detained off the Queensland coast will pay the wages of about 20 crew and give them enough provisions for their journey to China.
Growth in rates of pay excluding bonuses are now firmly below 2% for the first time since the ABS began compiling the Wage Price Index nearly 20 years ago.
A road freight group is warning it does not want a repeat of the abolished Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, as it faces a court challenge to its bid to have members exempted from legislation extending minimum rates for owner-drivers and contractors throughout NSW.
The AWU has accused the FWBC and a heavy equipment supplier of using the national construction code as a "Trojan horse" to cut pay and condition of workers outside the building industry.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has rejected a Labor proposal to make a joint submission to the Fair Work Commission on the importance of maintaining penalty rates.
A contractor "knowingly involved" in underpaying vulnerable supermarket trolley collectors and a subcontractor who "deliberately" produced false payment records and underpaid employees have been fined more than $90,000 by the Federal Court.
The Fair Work Commission's much-anticipated ruling on weekend penalty rates is likely to be brought down in September, according to Australia's biggest employer group.
HACSU says the Tasmanian Government has formally offered paramedics an 8% backdated pay rise, but describes negotiations as being hampered by a public sector wages policy "as elusive as a garden fairy".