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Private sector enterprise bargaining wage increases have grown to 3.7% a year in the first quarter of 2000, the highest in five quarters, but wage pressure from the GST is yet to emerge, according to a forecast by HSBC Markets.

Users of government-provided IR information and enforcement services have delivered an overwhelmingly positive report card on the services' timeliness, relevance and professionalism.

Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith's department has recommended that government agencies negotiating with employees and unions adopt tactics such as making false demands, using biased statistical information, suggesting the other side has connections with unsavoury characters, reopening settled issues and making threats and negative comments.

The rejection of two sectoral agreements by 12,000 Telstra employees this week is a victory for the telco's unions on two fronts: a successful campaign against the agreements but more importantly, it aligns expiry dates for agreements covering Telstra at December 23 this year.

A full bench of the IRC has cleared the way for the SDA to go ahead with its bid to rope-in around 35,000 Victorian retail employers to a federal award, ruling it was acceptable for the union to send letters of demand and logs of claims by ordinary post.

Caltex is in the process of shutting down its Kurnell refinery in NSW in preparation for a stopwork meeting by operators on Easter Sunday.

The SA branch of the meat industry union is seeking injunctions in the IRC in a bid to end a three-and-a-half month lockout at a sheep abattoir.

A Federal Court full bench has ordered the IRC to re-hear a costs application after an employer the Commission found to have deliberately concocted evidence escaped costs in an unfair dismissal case.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley has implied that the ALP won't tolerate any form of statutory individual contract if the party takes power at the next election.

In a blow to the Queensland Council of Unions' bid to boost casual loading in all State awards from 19% to 28.5%, the State Government has supported an increase to just 20%.