Employees should be completely free to choose their superannuation funds, and they should be run by trustee boards dominated by independent directors, according to the Murray financial system inquiry's report.
An eminent UK academic says employers are stepping up their attack on an internationally-recognised right to strike, with unions responding by pushing for the issue to be resolved once and for all by the International Court of Justice.
The Fair Work Commission will have to consider whether enterprise agreements contain productivity improvements before it approves them, while unions face additional hurdles to protected action, under the Coalition's latest IR bill.
The Australian Institute of Employment Rights says the pending Productivity Commission review of the Fair Work laws risks being a narrow, market-oriented exercise if its terms of reference do not embrace international human rights and labour standards, in a discussion paper released today.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has acknowledged that the initial April 2015 deadline for the Productivity Commission's IR review is now unrealistic and has also indicated he might not respond to the road safety remuneration tribunal review this year.
Victorian Labor has committed to abolishing the state's construction industry code of practice, repealing the Napthine Government’s anti-picket laws and creating two new public holidays if elected on November 29.
In a wide-ranging attack on the Heydon Royal Commission, ACTU assistant secretary Tim Lyons has dubbed it as part of a conservative agenda to restrict "organising, industrial action, right of entry, public campaigning, political action and expenditure, litigation, access to arbitration and the right to be self-governing".
The ACTU is seeking in the FWC's four-yearly review of modern awards to introduce an across-the-board entitlement to 10 days a year of paid family and domestic violence leave.
RMIT honorary professor and long-serving IR academic Breen Creighton says Australian labour law legislation has been characterised by knee-jerk responses to non-existent problems, a lack of willingness to allow existing laws to deal with issues, and "political opportunism", which explains why the major statute had been amended five times a year on average since 2009.