NSW Labor has laid out its plan to beef up the State's OHS, anti-discrimination and anti-bullying jurisdiction, including by reviving the industrial court and extending access to private sector employees, if it wins Saturday's election.
The Victorian Labor government has flagged it will aim for modest annual pay rises of 2%, setting the scene for an arm-wrestle with public sector unions in bargaining over a series of major enterprise agreements.
A federal Labor government would establish a single Whistleblowing Act and protection authority to ensure "companies are held to the same standard as unions", according to the ALP, but IR Minister Kelly O'Dwyer says its planned reward scheme could benefit those involved in misconduct.
A future Federal Labor government should not give contracts to "anti-union" law firms, according to an ALP conference resolution pushed by the CFMMEU's Victorian branch.
The Victorian ALP will revive attempts to ensure that all public sector employees can bargain over the same matters, if it is re-elected at the State election on Saturday.
A Federal Labor government will consider allowing multi-employer bargaining, but will focus on low-paid workers such as cleaners and early childhood educators, according to shadow IR minister Brendan O'Connor.
BP Australia is seeking to terminate the enterprise agreement for its oil refinery in Western Australia, in the latest case of a big employer using what the Federal Opposition has dubbed the "nuclear option" to break a bargaining deadlock.
Labor when it came to power in the 1980s sought to address the "real wage overhang" the economy faced, but now it has to correct a "real wage underhang", the federal shadow productivity minister told a conference last week.
A Victorian parliamentary inquiry has called for a legislated roll-back of cuts to penalty rates in the retail, hospitality and pharmacy industries, rather than a process of take-home pay orders issued by the Fair Work Commission.