In his second major backdown on Australian Defence Force personnel pay and conditions, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has bumped up from 1.5% to an above-inflation 2% the annual wage increases payable under their three-year agreement.
They reached their last bargaining deal only after a bloody industrial battle that culminated in a fleet grounding, but this time round Qantas and the ALAEA have struck an in-principle agreement without disputation that delivers each side some significant wins - including the reversal of redundancies and a partial pay-freeze.
Employment Minister Eric Abetz has declared that a frozen wage is better than no job, while refusing to comment on pay freeze deals being struck by individual employers.
Tasmania's Hodgman Government has introduced draft legislation for its proposal to impose a 12-month freeze on the wages and incremental increases of the state's 24,000 public servants and remove the State IRC's power to award future pay increases above a 2% Government-set cap.
The FSU will push to flow on changes in performance pay agreed with the National Australia Bank into upcoming bargaining grounds at the other three big banks.
The NSW Government has had a victory in its long-running battle to include compulsory superannuation increases within the public sector 2.5% wage cap, after the State's Court of Appeal quashed last year's IRC ruling that the wages cap only applied to Commission-awarded increases.
Queensland public servants will receive three 2.2% wage increases between now and December 2015, as a result of a Newman Government ministerial directive issued days before the Queensland Supreme Court was due to hear the government's appeal against an Industrial Court ruling on an interim pay increase.
