Former ACTU secretary and RBA director Bill Kelty has thrown his weight behind appointing someone with a union background to the Reserve Bank board, saying in the wake of claims about its limited perspectives that the central bank has not understood how wages operate "for a long time".
Former long-serving SDA national secretary Joe de Bruyn and HR Nicholls Society founding president John Stone are among those recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday honours.
A score of former union officials and activists moved into Parliament 15 years ago when the Rudd Labor Government took power at the "Work Choices" poll, but this time is different, with only a few winning, or a chance of winning, seats in Saturday's election victory for the party.
The Morrison Government has declined to endorse the FWC's provisional view extending 10 days' paid domestic leave to about 2.6 million award-covered workers, a decision partly based on evidence that it is an "emerging standard" in bargaining and over-award arrangements.
The main union representing coal mineworkers is pouring resources into advocating for Labor's election pledge of "same job, same pay" for labour hire workers across key resources seats in NSW and Queensland.
If it takes power at the May 21 election, the Opposition is planning to overhaul the Pacific Islands seasonal farm worker programs, while dumping the Morrison Government's agricultural visa, which extended to South-East Asian nations.
IR Minister Michaelia Cash says that if the Morrison Coalition Government is returned at the May 21 election, it will double the maximum penalties for serious, deliberate and repeated breaches of the law covering workplace behaviour in the construction industry.
The Coalition has today revealed a pre-election compromise position on its long-held push for "life-of-project" agreements, which would have a maximum term of six years, down on the eight-year regime jettisoned from its IR Omnibus Bill, but unions say it amounts to another Government strategy to cap pay rises.
The FWC faces major changes after the May 21 Federal election, with the winner entrusted with appointing a successor to President Iain Ross and Labor pledging to "rebalance" the tribunal after a succession of appointments from an employer background.
The AWU has admitted to more than 24,000 historic contraventions of registered organisations' obligations to report their membership numbers, a Senate Estimates committee has heard.