In levelling a $22,440 penalty against the former owner-operator of a labour-hire company that underpaid 80 workers on a Queensland mushroom farm more than $78,000, a court has noted the FWO did not seek compensation.
BHP's attempt to win approval of two enterprise deals to entrench an in-house labour hire company that now employs more than 2000 workers across its mining operations has been dealt a major blow by an FWC full bench majority, which has ruled that its failure to properly explain pay arrangements meant the workforce did not genuinely agree.
The MUA has vowed to resist what it claims are "common" efforts by stevedoring companies to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to slash wages and conditions on the waterfront.
Federal Treasury has told the FWC's minimum wage panel to be cautious in accepting predictions of a "very strong snapback" in the unemployment rate, as the economy re-opens after the coronavirus pandemic.
Large numbers of retail employees covered by agreements approved in the second half of last year face wage freezes if employers succeed in their campaign for a coronavirus-driven pause in minimum pay rises such as that adopted during the GFC, new Attorney-General's Department data on bargained wage rises reveals.
An FWC full bench has asked the Morrison Government whether it will boost funding to compensate employers if it grants a contested $5-an-hour COVID-19 allowance claim for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients.
A labour hire company's successor agreement has again failed to win approval from the FWC, despite an undertaking aimed at addressing a finding that it told workers their rates of pay would rise when they would actually fall.
The "exceptional circumstances" created by COVID-19 warrant delaying the operative date of any minimum wage increase by a fortnight to July 15, according to the Ai Group, while the Victorian Government is calling for a rise of at least 3%.
Growth in private sector rates of pay excluding bonuses remained stagnant at the end of last year, but continued to outpace inflation, according to ABS data released today.
Bargained wage rises in the private sector dropped to 2.7% a year in the September quarter, according to newly-released Attorney-General's Department data that also shows some large retail employers are starting to tie increases to the FWC's annual review.