The Morrison Government established an IR working group, chaired by former ACTU secretary Greg Combet and including a key legal advisor to the MUA during the bitter 1998 waterfront dispute, as a trouble-shooting body at the height of the COVID-19 restrictions and business shutdowns in April.
The union movement needs to build a "workers' claim" that lays out expectations and protections around working from home, according to ACTU secretary Sally McManus.
IR Minister and working groups chair Christian Porter has appointed the former head of the WA Treasury as his deputy chair, in the wake of a preliminary roundtable in Sydney this morning.
The Morrison Government's expert advisory group on modern slavery is too top-heavy with big business representatives, according to human rights groups, churches, academics and unions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison's plan for a dialogue with unions and employers over changes to workplace laws has sparked a scramble among stakeholders to get a seat at the table.
The Labor Opposition has seized on a warning by Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe that the JobKeeper wage subsidy should not be phased out too soon, insisting it identifies the dangers of the government's "snap back" strategy.
The ACTU will head into the Morrison Government's JobMaker policy discussions with the aim of reducing insecure employment and extending paid pandemic leave.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter will chair five working groups with the aim of producing a "practical reform" of the IR system to help grow jobs as the economy emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reduction in JobKeeper recipients won't lift unemployment, says Treasury; Men more likely to seek early super release; Court reserves on COVID-19 regulation challenge; and NRL refs sideline FWC case.
The CFMMEU's court challenge to the COVID-19 reduction in notice periods for agreement changes opened this morning, with the union opposing IR Minister Christian Porter's bid to admit evidence on 30 recent variation applications, countering that he could deal with it by issuing a media release.
