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.
The nexus between low unemployment and rising wages is broken, with the "hydraulic pressure" of a tight labour market undermined by systemic "leaks" and "loopholes", according to workplace relations minister Tony Burke.
Qantas has secured new deals with freight pilots and unlicenced aircraft engineers but the threat of turmoil looms, with licensed engineers voting to stop work, ground crew considering it and the FAAA claiming domestic fight attendants are facing ultimatums.
Private sector rates of pay increased by 2.7% annually in the June quarter, lifting off historic lows but failing to make much of a dent on surging inflation.
The Albanese Government has told the FWC it backs a minimum pay rise for the 365,000 aged care workers because their work value "is significantly higher than modern awards currently reflect" and "gender-based assumptions" have undervalued their labour.
The RBA is expecting the near-8% year-end headline inflation spike to only ease to 6.25% in the middle of next year, while it is turning its guns on the ABS wage price index, which it perceives as too narrow.
The ANMF will continue to pursue a nursing home it says should be paying members for the time it takes to perform a COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test before entering the facility, despite the FWC find it unclear "what possible basis" existed to make such a claim.
Former FWC Deputy President Peter Sams has foreshadowed the Federal Labor Government might introduce sector-wide bargaining changes by the end of the year in a bid to boost wage growth, but an employment law academic says there are three clear roadblocks to such a move.