The Fair Work Commission today reaffirmed its view that modest and regular minimum wage increases won't sabotage a robust employment landscape, representing this year's 3.5% hike as an "opportunity to improve relative living standards of the low-paid".
The Fair Work Commission has this morning granted award-reliant workers a 3.5% increase, lifting the national minimum wage by $24.30 a week or 64 cents an hour in this year's annual wage review ruling.
Uber has repelled another attempt to establish that it is an employer, despite the FWC finding that a driver's relationship with the ride-sharing business was of "some magnitude".
In upholding the dismissal on medical grounds of a prison officer who was later declared fit, the FWC has noted his union gained permission to obtain a second opinion but also assisted him in making an ill-fated decision not to pursue it until after his termination.
One year into a landmark agreement between Airtasker and Unions NSW to improve pay and conditions, the company's chief executive Tim Fung has told a Senate inquiry the platform's technology is not up to the task of ensuring adherence to minimum pay and licensing requirements.
A senior FWC member has approved an employer's request for legal representation in a dismissal case, but not before requiring hearings be conducted in private, that he be free to provide "appropriate" guidance to the unrepresented former worker, and that he retain the power to revoke permission if the lawyer complicates proceedings.
The Melbourne Magistrates Court has today set down a 13-day committal hearing on blackmail charges against Victorian CFMEU leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon to start on May 7.
The head of the newly-merged CFMMEU, Michael O'Connor, says the mega-union will work "slowly and carefully" through the early days of creating the new organisation.
The FWC has observed it is "not necessary" to consider whether representation creates unfairness between parties, as a French company was granted permission to engage a lawyer to defend a self-represented employee's unfair dismissal claim.
