There is "no substance" to the claims of inconsistent FWC decision-making that have underpinned calls for an independent appeal mechanism, according to the tribunal's president, Justice Iain Ross.
The ACTU's bid to remove former senior public servant Tony Cole from this year's annual wage review has failed, after he told the peak body in a consultation hearing this morning that he would not step down because he was not a party to the Audit Commission's recommendation to reduce the minimum wage.
A senior IR lawyer has told the HR Nicholls Society the Fair Work Act should be amended to ban protected industrial action that has serious consequences and to remove entirely the rights of high income earners to strike, in a presentation predicting the decline of the MUA's power and influence.
Labor and the Greens have combined in the Senate today to defeat the Abbott Government's legislation to establish a Registered Organisations Commission and align penalties for union and employer association officials with corporations law.
The Fair Work Commission has pushed the federal and state governments to show their hands in this year's wage review, asking them what dollar or percentage increase would constitute a "cautious" or "balanced" approach.
Advocating a much more severe cut to the Coalition's paid parental leave scheme than Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced on Tuesday, the National Audit Commission has recommended the government cap payments at average weekly earnings and plough the resulting savings into child care assistance.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has conceded that savings "won't be vast" from cutting the maximum payment under its paid parental leave scheme to $50,000, while the Greens are pushing for the new regime to be fully-funded by the Coalition's proposed levy on business.
Business groups are pushing the Abbott Government to drop a requirement in its Fair Work amendments that the FWC take account of prevailing industry standards in approving employer proposals to resolve deadlocked greenfields negotiations, in submissions to a Senate inquiry.
ACCI says the new safety net established by modern awards in 2010 cured any gender-based pay inequities, in a submission to the Fair Work Commission full bench that is hearing a bid by three unions to win equal remuneration for child care workers.
Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten has today confirmed that he has asked ALP national secretary George Wright to work with Labor's national executive to remove union membership as a prerequisite for party membership.