The Fair Work Act's continuing focus on single-enterprise bargaining, along with weak underpinning awards and supported bargaining's restriction to multi-employer rather than sector-wide bargaining, will limit the new stream's capacity to achieve "decent wages" for low-paid female employees, according to leading IR academics.
A major employer alliance supporting a union bid for supported multi-bargaining in the early childhood education and care sector says the FWC needs to bring the Albanese Government to the table as insufficient funding is hampering their ability to boost pay.
In the first test of new supported bargaining laws, the FWC will hear in mid-August the landmark application to authorise multi-employer negotiations involving 65 employers and 12,000 workers in the early childhood education and care sector.
As the FWC prepares for the Secure Jobs's bargaining and industrial action components to start on June 6, it has signalled that it plans to devote a substantial amount of members' time to the new mandatory pre-industrial-action conferences to try to facilitate agreements and will expect a similar commitment from parties.
The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act has received Royal Assent, stamping out pay secrecy clauses in new employment contracts, paring back MSD requirements and making it harder for employers to terminate agreements during bargaining, while the ABCC has entered a transition period ahead of its abolition.
As the Senate prepares to consider the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs Bill, a new ACTU paper says the legislation's multi-employer bargaining provisions will be crucial in lifting wages in seven of the eight industries with above-average gender pay gaps.
In a decision that United Voice says will make it harder for low-paid workers to be classified as award free, an FWC full bench has found that animal attendants and supervisors covered by a Queensland pet resort agreement should have been assessed against the Miscellaneous Award.
A Coles Supermarkets night-fill worker who is seeking to terminate the retailer's 2011 enterprise agreement has failed to stymie bids by the retailer and the SDA to be represented by lawyers.
The mere fact that bargaining is "difficult" is unlikely to justify granting a low-paid authorisation for a multi-employer agreement, a failed application by United Voice in the security industry demonstrates.