The FWC will today hold its final hearing in this year's minimum wage review, in which employers and unions are divided over whether the domestic economy has started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
Queensland's Palaszczuk Labor Government is struggling to sell a proposed 12-month freeze on a scheduled 2.5% wage increase to the unions representing the state's public sector workers.
Merivale has hit back at a class action's claims it underpaid thousands of salaried employees and others engaged under a pre-Fair Work "zombie" deal and is maintaining it can use overpayments to offset additional entitlements.
The NSW Government has taken off the table its offer of a $1000 "bonus" and job guarantee in lieu of a pay rise for frontline public servants, as it pursues the freeze in the NSW IRC, following a disallowance motion in the Upper House.
The ACTU and the Victorian Government in supplementary submissions to the FWC's annual wage review have maintained their requests for real wage increases, while the AiG has fallen into line with ACCI and backed a freeze.
Unions are still in the dark about which NSW public servants would qualify for a $1000 frontline worker 'bonus' in lieu of a pay rise, while a health union has asked the State Treasurer to ditch a 2.5% wages cap before it puts the offer to members.
The NSW Government has imposed a 12-month wage freeze on its 408,000-strong public sector workforce, but has provided a job security guarantee for the same period.
Large numbers of retail employees covered by agreements approved in the second half of last year face wage freezes if employers succeed in their campaign for a coronavirus-driven pause in minimum pay rises such as that adopted during the GFC, new Attorney-General's Department data on bargained wage rises reveals.
The FWC has opened the door on a potential delay to any minimum wage increase this year, observing it can change the effective date in "exceptional circumstances".
An FWC full bench has asked the Morrison Government whether it will boost funding to compensate employers if it grants a contested $5-an-hour COVID-19 allowance claim for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients.
