Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has rejected a Labor proposal to make a joint submission to the Fair Work Commission on the importance of maintaining penalty rates.
The Fair Work Commission has resumed hearing another round of deadlocked pay talks involving Victorian firefighters, threatening more political problems for the Andrews Labor government.
A contractor "knowingly involved" in underpaying vulnerable supermarket trolley collectors and a subcontractor who "deliberately" produced false payment records and underpaid employees have been fined more than $90,000 by the Federal Court.
The Fair Work Commission's much-anticipated ruling on weekend penalty rates is likely to be brought down in September, according to Australia's biggest employer group.
The gap between high and low income earners is widening as median incomes stagnate, according to the latest HILDA survey from the University of Melbourne.
The FWC has recommended a Perth man working on the Ichthys LNG project in Darwin be paid a living-away-from-home allowance despite renting locally when he was employed.
HACSU says the Tasmanian Government has formally offered paramedics an 8% backdated pay rise, but describes negotiations as being hampered by a public sector wages policy "as elusive as a garden fairy".
Master Builders Association Victoria and the CFMEU's state branch have squared off following union claims that more than 100 employers have signed three-year pattern agreements, pre-empting the proposed new national construction code.