Enterprise or individual agreements page 6 of 15

Enterprise agreements filed with the FWC in the fortnight to October 21 paid average annualised wage increases of 3.5%, substantially outpacing the 2.8% rises in DEWR's data for June quarter agreements but well below the 7.3% rate of consumer price inflation.

Agreements lodged with the FWC in the fortnight to September 9 delivered annual rises of just 2.4% – the lowest in the short history of the Commission's "real-time" bargained wage data – after education deals effectively paying 1.7% a year to more than 10,000 workers dragged down the average increase.

Private sector agreements approved by the FWC in the June quarter paid average annualised wage increases of 2.9%, lifting growth to the fastest pace in two years, but remaining at less than half of the CPI.

Apple Australia has agreed to return to negotiations with three unions, which have sought bargaining orders against the IT giant.

The FWC's new leading indicator of bargained wage rises - officially launched today - shows that deals lodged in the first half of last month paid an average increase of 3%, up on those in the most recent DEWR data.

As talks continue on the scope and form of a soon-to-be expanded multi-employer bargaining framework, Labor Senator Tony Sheldon says Qantas' IR arrangements are a "textbook case" for it and claims the airline's "game book" is also playing out in the mining sector.

MEAA members have accepted a new enterprise agreement covering journalists at Nine's publishing operations, which delivers pay rises of 7.5% over two years and ends unpaid internships as part of a broader push to improve newsroom diversity.

An employer has been given a final chance to respond without compulsion to concerns about a recently-approved deal, after a FWC bench dismissed an "unusual" application for it to recuse itself over perceived bias.

The FWC has promised today to provide "real-time" data on bargained pay rises, with plans to issue fortnightly reports on wage movements in enterprise agreement approval applications, with the first "proposed report" showing a 3.2% average annualised rise in the first two weeks of July, well ahead of the last official departmental number for the March quarter of 2.7%.

Westpac is holding out a $1000 incentive to encourage employees to vote up its proposed agreement that promises a 4% rise in January for employees earning less than $95,000, when inflation is forecast to reach almost 8%, but the FSU says it should be increasing its base pay offer as the union pursues a 6% boost.