Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews has pledged to create a new labour inspectorate to police wage underpayments, which will offer a competing state-based jurisdiction to the Commonwealth's Fair Work Ombudsman.
The Federal Labor Opposition has confirmed it is at odds with key industry bodies in accepting the link between truck drivers' pay and conditions and road safety, but stopped short of committing to re-establishing the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT).
Suppressed wage growth and rising inequality pose a threat to both Australia's economy and its political stability, according to former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan, who used a party-sponsored conference on the weekend to confirm that his personal economic settings had been "moved to the left" by the GFC.
The Tasmanian ALP has announced it will introduce industrial manslaughter laws and consider a labour hire licensing scheme if it wins the March 3 state election.
The ALP should hand power to individual members of affiliated unions to vote on its leadership and candidates rather than leaving it in the hands of secretaries, says national president Mark Butler.
A Federal Labor Government would require that workers who vote on a new enterprise agreement be representative of those who will eventually be covered by it.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is calling for businesses, unions and employers to do "something radical, something profoundly different" by resuming 1980s-style cooperation to end wage stagnation and boost the economy.
Australia must "redress the imbalance in bargaining power" held by workers and unions to reduce economic inequality, according to Federal Opposition workplace spokesperson, Brendan O'Connor.