After chairing negotiations between resources giant Esso and the AWU, long-serving FWC member Bernie Riordan has today issued a recommendation that the company provide a 22% pay rise over almost four years to end a decade-long deadlock for its Bass Strait platform operators and that in return the workforce move to a new roster.
The CPSU is recommending the Albanese Government's "bolstered" final pay offer to its members, after winning an additional lump sum payment that brings the first year's 4% increase forward by 12 weeks.
Award wage increases have responded to rather than contributed to higher price inflation, and although the tight labour market has brought higher pay growth, it is "not enough to be a threat to slowing price inflation", according to a leading labour market economist.
ANZ's plan to "force" workers to return to the office for half of the working week is "short-sighted", "antiquated" and "punitive", according to the Finance Sector Union, which is also urging members at the RBA to reject a second unilateral bargaining offer.
A FWC full bench has refused to extend a farm's 16-year-old deal for 12 weeks beyond next month's sunsetting of zombie agreements, describing the application as an effort to pay below-award rates for "one more" onion-picking season.
In a significant ruling on agreement coverage, a full Federal Court has found that two Catholic school teachers are entitled to pay rises contained in new deals despite resigning before they took effect.
A Channel 10 executive producer has failed to convince the Federal Court that the broadcaster should have paid her an extra $400,000 under its significantly more generous enterprise agreement redundancy pay provisions, rather than the NES entitlement she received.
A FWC member is recommending "a good deal" to settle a Sydney Water bargaining dispute that would boost wages by 11%, provide a one-off $2000 cost of living payment and facilitate a new classification framework to bust through the utility's "glass ceiling".
A pre-Christmas waterfront battle between the MUA and container terminal operator DP World kicks off today with a 48-hour strike in Fremantle, which started at 6am WA time, to be followed by a 44-hour stoppage in Melbourne, from noon on Sunday.
New DEWR data has undercut RBA warnings about the risks of a wage-price spiral, indicating that private sector bargained wage growth remains anchored below 4% a year.
