Less than 2% of private sector workers will be covered by agreements by 2030 if the current rate of decline in bargaining continues, according to new analysis by the Centre for Future Work.
The FWC will no longer be required to conduct four-yearly reviews of modern awards, while being given powers to approve enterprise agreements despite minor procedural or technical errors, under long-delayed legislation passed by the Federal Parliament last night.
The IEU is seeking increases to the teachers' modern award that would lift rates by up to $23,000 a year or a flat 25%, this week telling the FWC that its work value claim on behalf of early childhood teachers cannot wait until the next four-yearly review.
A new model award term requiring employers to make a genuine attempt to reach agreement on requests for flexible work arrangements and provide detailed reasons for refusals is to come into effect on December 1.
The FWC has agreed to terminate an agreement covering workers at Godfreys appliance stores after hearing evidence that some pay rates had not increased since 2011.
As the FSU and Travel Money Oz head to conciliation next Thursday over claims that the currency exchange business owes workers for unpaid overtime including attendance at "buzz nights", the parties are already at loggerheads over award coverage.
The FWC has tossed out a new deal put forward by a "sophisticated industrial player" after finding it failed to spell out to four long-term workers the numerous terms that fell short of the industry award.
Three actors in a government-commissioned theatre production have failed to convince a court that they were employees engaged on "sham" contracts, rather than independent contractors.
As the SDA prepares to take a proposed deal to Woolworths workers, its rival union is backing a store supervisor's application to terminate the retailer's 2012 national agreement and claw back $1 billion in alleged underpayments.
Liberal Party leadership challenger Peter Dutton has confirmed his support for cutting penalty rates, while trying to put forward other policy differences with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
