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Multi-employer bargaining not for everyone: Labor

A Federal Labor government will consider allowing multi-employer bargaining, but will focus on low-paid workers such as cleaners and early childhood educators, according to shadow IR minister Brendan O'Connor.

Labor decries BP's deployment of "nuclear option"

BP Australia is seeking to terminate the enterprise agreement for its oil refinery in Western Australia, in the latest case of a big employer using what the Federal Opposition has dubbed the "nuclear option" to break a bargaining deadlock.

Wages underhang has replaced overhang: Labor's Leigh

Labor when it came to power in the 1980s sought to address the "real wage overhang" the economy faced, but now it has to correct a "real wage underhang", the federal shadow productivity minister told a conference last week.


Industry super Bill stalls as Hayne's gaze comes to REST

The Coalition government bid to force industry superannuation funds to have one-third independent directors appears to have stalled in the wake of damning evidence about retail funds at the Hayne Royal Commission.

No backdown on penalty rates: Dutton

Liberal Party leadership challenger Peter Dutton has confirmed his support for cutting penalty rates, while trying to put forward other policy differences with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.


Put harassment regulation on same footing as OHS laws: Expert

A leading workplace academic has called on legislators to consider a UK parliamentary inquiry's recommendation to impose a legal obligation to protect workers from sexual harassment, with breaches resulting in "substantial financial penalties".

Introduce laws to restore penalty rates: Inquiry

A Victorian parliamentary inquiry has called for a legislated roll-back of cuts to penalty rates in the retail, hospitality and pharmacy industries, rather than a process of take-home pay orders issued by the Fair Work Commission.

Unions back 20 years' jail for industrial deaths

The ACTU's triennial Congress has endorsed a proposal for state and federal governments to enact industrial manslaughter laws, after maritime union leader Chris Cain told delegates that employers who recklessly kill workers should face $20 million fines and 20 years behind bars.