The employer organisation that has been most vocal in supporting AWAs - the AMMA - claims that abolishing them could result in an annual loss of export revenue of between $6.6 billion and $9.9 billion in the resources sector alone.
Mothers and fathers who have "low quality" jobs that lack security, control, flexible start/finish times and access to paid family leave are more than twice as likely to experience symptoms of conditions such as depression and anxiety as those in "high quality" jobs, while their children's risk of psychological conditions also doubles, according to groundbreaking research by an Australian National University academic.
The Shop Union, which represents many tens of thousands of juniors, hasn't given up on getting rid of junior rates after the Government and Labor combined to entrench discounted wages. The union will move to get rid of the "worst abuses" of junior rates through award variations.
A NSW parliamentary inquiry into Work Choices has called on the State Government to follow Victoria's example of creating a workplace rights advocate and to consider boosting state resources for dealing with unfair dismissal claims.
New Queensland CFMEU construction division secretary; Women's Work Choices roundtables; NSW teachers want 10% super; and date for ATO right of entry appeal.
Fair Pay Commissioner Ian Harper has downplayed the employment and inflationary impacts of his Commission's unexpectedly large increase in minimum wages last month, saying it cut nearly all affected pay rates in real terms and he was looking for jobs growth as a result.
A bargaining dispute at a major engineering workshop in the La Trobe Valley - in which the company has notified an indefinite lockout, the union an indefinite strike, and the AIRC has refused the first application for a Work Choices "cooling off" period - has entered its eleventh week.
ABC staff members of the CPSU and MEAA have voted by a 72% majority to accept the public broadcaster's improved 12% pay offer in a proposed new collective agreement.
Pay increases in private sector Work Choices collective agreements have plummeted to 3.2% a year in the September quarter, the lowest rise in four years and well below the 3.9% inflation rate, according to DEWR data released today.
