Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir has supported penalty rates and touched on his former role as a CFMEU shop steward in his first speech to federal parliament, while Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has used the chamber to attack FWBC head Nigel Hadgkiss's employment history.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has asked a Victorian Government agency to urgently review the way it engages workers, after an investigation revealed it might be "misclassifying" employees as independent contractors.
The Productivity Commission has denied it is "sceptical" of the need for unfair dismissal laws, and says the questions it will ask in its IR inquiry is whether they achieve their purpose and if there is a better way of doing things.
With Employment Minister Eric Abetz signalling he intends to cold-call, rather than advertise, to fill Fair Work Commission vacancies, the AMMA is today arguing it is people with employer backgrounds whose numbers he should be dialling.
Senior FWC members will head up enterprise bargaining and dispute resolution workshops in a pilot to kick off in Sydney next month, as part of the tribunal's broader strategy to encourage more productive workplaces.
Employers have told the Reserve Bank of Australia that workers appear willing to trade wage growth for greater job security, according to the institution's latest monetary policy statement.
In a lucrative Christmas/New Year period for the Commonwealth's coffers, the Federal Circuit Court has handed down penalties amounting to more than $580,000 in eight separate cases brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman against companies and their directors for breaches of the Fair Work Act.
In a move that the government has dismissed as a political stunt, the ACTU has told Employment Minister Eric Abetz he should suspend his IR legislative agenda for at least a year to enable the Heydon trade union inquiry and the Productivity Commission Fair Work Act review to run their course.
Former Liberal Senator Gary Humphries will take up his role as a full-time deputy president of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal from next year, while the Federal Government has also made Productivity Commission appointments and the South Australian Government has announced two deputy presidents for its new employment tribunal.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's secondary boycott case against the CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch has been set down for a six-week trial in September next year.
