The FWO should given the same power the ATO has to recover unpaid super from employers, according to a new report commissioned by industry funds that estimates companies are underpaying compulsory entitlements by at least $3.6 billion a year.
Victoria will conduct gender audits across the state public sector as part of a new strategy to address inequality, sexism and violence against women, while a Senate inquiry majority has rejected legislation to outlaw "pay gag clauses" to reduce the gender-based remuneration gap.
The Fair Work Commission is proposing to remove "unusual" annual leave and annual leave loading entitlements together with penalties for late payment of wages transferred electronically as part of its four-yearly review into modern awards.
A worker sacked for sending "highly sensitive" information to her private email has provided a forum for the FWC to reaffirm that employers can bolster their unfair dismissal defence with evidence of misconduct unearthed after an employee's termination.
The FWC has found that an employer was justified in seeking to protect its reputation by sacking a "dishonest" employee who told a client she had sent an important document when no trace of the email could ever be found.
The CFMEU's mining and energy division has flagged that its members will take protected industrial action at Victoria's Loy Yang power station within the next month.
A Senate inquiry has urged Public Service Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in the federal public sector bargaining dispute and soften the "intransigent" Coalition's "brutally hard-line" bargaining policy by relaxing the 2% wages cap and removing the prohibition on backpay, but Government senators have flatly rejected the recommendations.
Labor and Greens senators are calling on the Federal Government to establish a new authority to provide a "just transition" for workers expected to lose jobs during the shift away from coal-fired power generation, but the Coalition says it would just increase bureaucracy.
The FWC has rejected a union application for a bargaining order, after finding that redundancies triggered by protected industrial action do not necessarily constitute a breach of good faith bargaining obligations.
