INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS – AUSTRALIA

Future dark under ALP: Dutton

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Original article by Geoff Chambers
The Australian – Page: 1 & 2 : 28-Oct-22

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has used his budget-reply speech to criticise the federal government’s stance on a range of issues, including industrial relations, energy policy, housing and taxation. Dutton described Labor’s push for multi-employer bargaining as a "throwback to the 1980s" that will reduce productivity and result in strike action across the country. Dutton also contended that the government’s first budget will leave the average family about $2,000 worse off by Christmas, given that it will result in a rise in power prices, the cost of living, taxes, interest rates, unemployment and the deficit. Dutton said the government has already broken its election promise to reduce energy bills by $275 within three years, and he claimed that Labor is "laying the groundwork to break" its promise on the stage-three tax cuts. He also backed the Coalition’s proposal to allow people to use superannuation savings to buy their first home, contending that Labor’s budget plan to encourage super funds and other institutional investors to fund one million new homes is unrealistic.

CORPORATES
LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Miners say they’re pawns in IR inquiry

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Original article by Phillip Coorey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 5-Oct-22

The Minerals Council of Australia has criticised a Senate committee’s decision to require industry representatives to appear before its inquiry into a bill on labour hire firms that has been put forward by One Nation’s Malcolm Roberts. MCA CEO Tanya Constable argues that it is not necessary as the industry is already consulting with the federal government regarding its own proposed ‘same job, same pay’ legislation. Labor’s 2022 federal election platform included a commitment to crack down on the use of labour hire workers in sectors such as mining.

CORPORATES
MINERALS COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA, ONE NATION PARTY, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Call to end MUA ports chokehold

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Original article by Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 17-Aug-22

Australian Chamber of ­Commerce & Industry CEO Andrew McKellar will use a National Press Club speech on Wednesday to call for productivity improvements at the nation’s ports. He will argue that Australia’s ports are among the least efficient in the world, and that action must be taken to address the Maritime Union of Australia’s "chokehold". McKellar will also argue that industrial relations reform must be high on the agenda for the upcoming jobs and skills summit, as well as an increase in the permanent migrant intake.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, NATIONAL PRESS CLUB (AUSTRALIA), MARITIME UNION OF AUSTRALIA

Universities on workplace watchdog’s wage theft priority list

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Original article by Angus Thompson
The Sydney Morning Herald – Page: Online : 22-Jun-22

Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker says wage underpayment has become a systemic issue in Australia’s tertiary education sector. The FWO is investigating 11 of the nation’s universities for potentially underpaying their staff. Parker says the high level of casual staff at universities is also a major concern. The National Tertiary Education Union’s president Alison Barnes says wage theft in universities is "out of control". Wage theft in the higher education sector will be one of the FWO’s priorities in 2022-23, along with the fast food, hospitality and agricultural industries.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, NATIONAL TERTIARY EDUCATION INDUSTRY UNION

Burke’s IR agenda: fix bargaining

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 5 : 17-Jun-22

Employment and Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke says legislating to include 10 days of paid family and domestic violence in the national employment standards will be his first priority when parliament resumes in July. He adds that overhauling the enterprise bargaining system is the key to addressing Australia’s "wages crisis", and he will consider every proposal that emerges from the government’s jobs summit with employers and unions in September. Burke is open to using a single bill to pursue his workplace reforms, which also including criminalising wage theft and equal pay for labour hire workers.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EDUCATION, SKILLS AND EMPLOYMENT

Low-pay hike to drive up prices

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 1 & 4 : 16-Jun-22

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed the 5.2 per cent increase in the minimum wage, contending that many low-paid workers carried Australia through the pandemic. The minimum wage will rise by $40 a week to $812, while workers on higher award rates will receive a wage increase of 4.6 per cent. However, Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry CEO Andrew McKellar says businesses face additional costs of $7.9bn, and he warns that they will either have to absorb the costs or pass them on to customers. The Australian Retailers Association’s CEO Paul Zahra says economic conditions for the retail sector are already challenging, and the minimum wage increase could force some to close.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, AUSTRALIAN RETAILERS ASSOCIATION

Gas workers threaten bans over outsourcing

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 26-May-22

Production workers on Shell’s Prelude floating LNG facility are preparing to launch industrial action, Amongst other things, they are seeking a ban on the outsourcing of jobs to contractors on lower pay than that of direct employees who do the same job. Australian Workers’ Union national secretary Daniel Walton says it will not budge from the basic starting point that workers doing the same work on the same site should be paid the same rate.

CORPORATES
SHELL COMPANY OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED, SHELL PLC, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION-FEDERATION OF INDUSTRIAL, MANUFACTURING AND ENGINEERING EMPLOYEES

Aged care wages should be Labor’s ‘first priority’: HSU boss

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Original article by Angus Thompson
Brisbane Times – Page: Online : 26-May-22

The Fair Work Commission has held several weeks of hearings regarding the Health Services Union’s push for a 25 per cent increase in the wages of aged-care workers. The HSU’s national president Gerard Hayes says the federal government’s submission to the wage case should be the new Labor administration’s top priority. Carolyn Smith from the United Workers Union agrees that the issue must be a priority for the government. It was recently estimated that there is a shortage of about 60,000 workers in the aged-care sector.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, HEALTH SERVICES UNION OF AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, UNITED WORKERS UNION

Court backs contract jobs

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1 & 9 : 10-Feb-22

University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart says a landmark High Court decision is a "big win" for companies which contend that their workers are independent contractors rather than employees. The court has ruled that two truck drivers who had worked exclusively for a lighting company for nearly four decades via a partnership arrangement are not employees, and are therefore not entitled to minimum pay and conditions. A majority of the court adopted a strict approach that relied almost solely on the terms of the contract itself. However, in a separate judgment the court has ruled that a British backpacker was an employee rather than a contractor, because his contract gave his construction labour hire firm the right to decide who he could work for.

CORPORATES
HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA, UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Australian social services department underpaid dozens of staff $400,000 over five years

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Original article by Luke Henriques-Gomes
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 22-Dec-21

Documents released under freedom of information laws, show that a key federal government agency has admitted to underpaying its staff. The Department of Social Services self-reported the underpayments totalling more than $400,000 to the Fair Work Ombudsman. The Community & Public Sector Union contends that the Department had been aware of the underpayments in 2017 and had failed to address the issue until it was issued with a compliance notice by the FWO in July 2021. A total of 68 current and former employees of the Department’s communications services branch were affected by the underpayments.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF SOCIAL SERVICES, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, COMMUNITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR UNION