Australia's two largest employer groups have rejected the Morrison Government's in-principle commitment to introduce criminal offences for the worst cases of underpayment.
Victorian Attorney-General and workplace safety minister Jill Hennessy says that new legislation to create a criminal offence of industrial manslaughter could extend to some workplace-linked suicides and to diseases such as silicosis.
Now that the Morrison Government has decided to extend the maximum terms of greenfields agreements for major projects, employers say the principle should apply more widely to non-greenfields agreements covering subcontractors on such jobs.
New Zealand will consider enabling unions and employers to charge a bargaining fee for non-members under a new system of fair pay agreements that would mandate minimum rates and conditions across low-paid industries.
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government is preparing to introduce industrial manslaughter legislation into State Parliament by the end of the year, while Federal IR Minister Christian Porter says further investigation is needed before such an offence is incorporated in the model WHS Act.
The Morrison Government's IR review will consider whether to give the FWC the power to penalise sacked workers if they make unfair dismissal claims that they then fail to genuinely pursue.
A major employer has expressed concerns about the Morrison Government's looming clampdown on workers' entitlement funds, praising its own experience of the "quality service" offered to injured employees.
The Queensland Law Society has detailed a host of concerns about the Coalition's proposed "ensuring integrity" legislation, arguing its broadening of recommendations by the royal commission into trade unions is unjustified, unfair and "contrary" to such established legal principles as presumption of innocence.
The Morrison Government is looking to establish a national labour hire registration scheme early next year, according to a briefing given to IR Minister Christian Porter soon after he took up his new role.
