Category Archives: Industrial relations

David Pocock joins Greens in push to criminalise non-payment of super

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Government’s closing loopholes bill yet to include superannuation theft, estimated to cost workers $5bn a year

The independent senator David Pocock has joined a push by the Greens and unions to criminalise the intentional non-payment of superannuation, after the measure was omitted from Labor’s industrial relations bill.

The Albanese government’s legislation has proposed to criminalise wage theft but not super theft, which is estimated to cost workers up to $5bn a year, and Pocock said if the government is “serious about closing loopholes then the intentional non-payment of super should also be criminalised”.

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Qantas pilots in Western Australia to strike for 24 hours over pay deal

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Industrial action could affect more than 50 flights including routes from Perth to regional towns and mine sites

Qantas pilots who operate passenger, charter and fly-in-fly-out (Fifo) services in Western Australia will stop work for 24 hours next week, as workers negotiating a new pay deal complain of wages “significantly lower” compared to other airlines.

The Australian Federation of Air Pilots (Afap), which represents pilots employed by Network Aviation – a subsidiary of Qantas Group which operates Qantas Link, Fifo and charter services for the airline in Western Australia – said it notified Qantas management on Thursday afternoon about the stop work action.

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Greens want superannuation theft made a crime in Labor’s workplace bill

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Senator Barbara Pocock says unpaid super is costing workers at least $3.3bn a year, while wage theft losses are about $1.3bn

The Greens have urged the Albanese government to make superannuation theft a crime, after failure to pay super was not included in the proposed wage theft offence in Labor’s closing loopholes bill.

The Greens’ employment spokesperson, Senator Barbara Pocock, has warned that unpaid super is costing workers at least $3.3bn a year, more than double the amount estimated to be lost through wage theft ($1.3bn).

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Coalition and employers back David Pocock over splitting contentious industrial relations bill

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ACT senator wants to move forward with workers’ compensation for PTSD and banning discrimination against employees experiencing domestic violence

Employer groups and the Coalition have backed calls from David Pocock to split Labor’s industrial relations bill and deal with uncontentious parts this year, including workers’ compensation and discrimination law reforms.

The influential crossbencher is considering moving a private senator’s bill to move forward with provisions improving access to workers compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder in the ACT as a priority.

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Politics live: James Paterson calls for security vetting of Australian parliament staff in wake of UK espionage scandal

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Shadow home affairs minister calls for extra checks ‘at the very least for MPs who work on sensitive committees’. Follow today’s live news updates

Ley defends pharmacists’ opposition to 60-day dispensing rule for prescriptions

The interview then gets to the issue of pharmacists and the change the government made to allow for 60-day dispensing (two-for-one prescriptions) which will save chronically ill patients up to $180 a year (as well as money on less trips to the doctor, travel etc.) but will cost pharmacists up to $150,000 a year (from the fourth year of the change) in lost dispensing fees (plus people buying fewer ‘incidentals’ such as jelly beans).

I’ve been in contact with many pharmacists over recent weeks, including those who left their businesses and assembled here a couple of weeks ago and I really am concerned about the impact this policy change is going to have.

I’m hearing [about] pharmacies who are already laying off staff. They’re already letting people go and most importantly, they can’t continue to provide the previously free support services that they used to …

Because they’ve told me.

Because if the government has changed the contract it has with pharmacy and is paying them less, they have to change their business in response. It’s as simple as that.

I would like to absolutely recognise the contribution she has made. She has been a trailblazer for our party. She has changed national politics and I have seen the work that she’s done over many years, much of it very modest, very behind the scenes, very in community.

So people often think of her as a defence and foreign affairs minister. I’ve seen her as a local champion for Western Sydney, and disadvantaged people across this country, and I have yeah, I mean, I’ll be really sad to see her go.

Always standing up for Australia’s national interest and a safer, stronger region. It’s as simple as that.

I think we did extremely good work with the Solomon Islands and, indeed, with the Pacific and people are looking at this through the lens of Covid and suggesting that we could have done more when, in fact, travel was an impossibility. I think that issue is well and truly being put to bed.

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Family of Uber Eats rider who died after being hit by truck urges MPs to pass Labor’s gig worker changes

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Union helps Burak Dogan’s family lodge workers’ compensation claim after company denied them $400,000 death benefit

Yavuz Cikar still seethes at the injustice that followed his nephew Burak Dogan’s death.

Dogan, an Uber Eats rider and 30-year-old Turkish student, was riding an electric bike in Sydney’s inner west in April 2020. About 26 minutes after he cancelled an Uber Eats delivery, he was hit by a truck.

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Australian government to close labour hire loophole to help 67,000 workers being ‘ripped off’ by employers

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Workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, says move will be ‘life changing’ for workers it is intended to protect

The federal government will move to close a loophole allowing employers to undercut workers with cheaper labour hire as part of what it calls a “life-changing” tranche of workplace reforms to be introduced to parliament this week.

Under the proposed laws to be introduced to parliament on Monday, companies with more than 15 workers will be forced to pay labour hire staff the same wages as those engaged under enterprise agreements.

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Littleproud says ‘there’ll be no victory lap’ if voice fails – as it happened

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Nationals leader backs Peter Dutton’s call to hold a referendum on Indigenous recognition if the voice to parliament vote fails in October. This blog is now closed

Reforms ensure basic standards around pay and working conditions: Burke

Burke has also flagged reforms to ensure gig workers have some basic minimum standards around pay and conditions. Burke says the government reforms are not designed to “break the technology”.

There is no doubt that when people are ultimately receiving really low wages then making ends meet is tougher, and that puts extra pressure on you to take risks.

Riders have spoken to me about it and they say quite specifically that part of the desperation is you are just not earning enough to make ends meet.

We’re talking about the crime being for intentional wage theft, that’s where someone knows the rules. They know exactly what they’re doing. It is the cases where somebody knows that someone is meant to be paid more and they don’t care because they think they can get away with it, and they know that up until now the worse they will have to do is just pay the money back at a later point in time. So wage theft has nothing to do with complexity. It is about theft.

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Australian employers who deliberately underpay workers to face million-dollar fines or up to 10 years in jail

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Workplace relations minister Tony Burke says he is ‘surprised’ move to close loopholes has been controversial

Workplace relations minister Tony Burke has said sending employers to jail for wage theft is a loophole that needs to close, adding he is surprised it has been controversial.

The minister also has hit back again at industry critics warning the laws promising to improve conditions for gig workers will make services more expensive.

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‘Only at Qantas’: workers express disbelief at CEO Alan Joyce’s $10m share windfall

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Unions say bonus payments, revealed to the ASX on Friday, ‘reward management for short-term thinking and cost cutting’

The unions representing Qantas workers have reacted incredulously to the news outgoing CEO Alan Joyce has pocketed more than $10m in shares for meeting the company’s Covid-19 goals.

On Friday Qantas announced to the ASX that Joyce had received 1.74m shares, valued at just over $10m, under the company’s long-term incentive and Covid recovery retention plans. Chief financial officer Vanessa Hudson, Joyce’s likely successor, also took home $2m worth.

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Australia’s gig economy workers set to benefit from minimum pay and protection against ‘unfair deactivation’

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Labor bill gives Fair Work Commission power to set minimum standards for hundreds of thousands of ‘employee-like workers’ on digital platforms

Gig economy workers in Australia including ride-share drivers and food delivery riders could soon benefit from minimum pay and protection against “unfair deactivation”.

Under a bill to be introduced by the Albanese government next week, the Fair Work Commission will be given the power to set minimum standards for hundreds of thousands of “employee-like workers” on digital platforms from 1 July 2024.

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Global markets brace for supply disruptions as Woodside Energy workers prepare to strike

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Unions say members could take industrial action as early as 2 September if next round of bargaining is unsuccessful

Offshore platform workers at Woodside Energy are preparing to strike, as protracted negotiations over pay and conditions threaten to disrupt Australian gas exports, putting international markets on edge.

Union representatives said on Sunday workers planned to strike if the next round of bargaining, scheduled for Wednesday, was unsatisfactory.

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Queensland Uniting church minister opposed to same-sex marriage loses unfair dismissal claim

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Fair Work Commission rules Hedley Wycliff Atunaisa Fihaki was not employed by the church but sacking would remain valid even if he had been

A Uniting church minister who was sacked for public statements opposing the church’s position on same-sex marriage has lost his unfair dismissal claim.

Hedley Wycliff Atunaisa Fihaki was inducted as a minister of the Mooloolaba Uniting church in 2013, but was dismissed after anti-same-sex marriage statements in social and mainstream media between January 2019 and August 2021.

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NSW politicians and public service executives hit with wage freeze to fund payrise for frontline workers

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Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday freezing the salaries of MPs and executives from July

Promised pay rises for New South Wales frontline workers will be funded by a two-year freeze on the wages of state politicians and public service senior executives.

Legislation will be introduced to state parliament on Tuesday freezing the salaries of MPs and executives from July and redirecting the millions of dollars in savings to nurses, paramedics, teachers and other frontline workers.

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Treasurer delivers budget speech – as it happened

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This blog is now closed. Follow the budget reaction blog here

Greens accuse Labor of designing budget surplus ‘for political reasons’

Greens treasury spokesperson Nick McKim is next on ABC radio RN Breakfast and he is still not happy with the changes to the petroleum resource rent tax.

This surplus has been designed for political reasons, by Jim Chalmers. And again, what we are seeing in this budget is an acknowledgment rhetorically that the government needs to do more to help people who are doing it really tough, but they are not taking the action they need to actually deliver help at the extent that it is desperately needed.

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Qantas accused of wasting ‘eye-watering’ amounts of money defending ‘illegal sackings’

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Transport Workers’ Union says Qantas’s actions constitute ‘the largest case of illegal sackings in Australian history’

Qantas has been condemned for wasting “eye-watering amounts” on “legal warfare” to defend what unions describe as the “largest case of illegal sackings in Australian history”.

The high court on Tuesday began hearing an appeal by Qantas against rulings in the federal court that its decision to outsource the jobs of 1,700 ground handlers in 2020 was unlawful.

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Australia news live: Liberal MPs praise Leeser’s decision to quit frontbench; contraceptive class action to begin in Melbourne

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Bridget Archer lauds former shadow minister’s ‘courage and integrity’. Follow live

Japanese hydrogen partners offer only short-term deals, want more funds

There’s been a few articles in the business media lately touting the promise of converting brown coal in Victoria into hydrogen and shipping the fuel to Japan.

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Essential workers unable to afford to rent alone almost anywhere in Australia, report shows

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Aged care workers in capital cities would have to spend 77% of their pay on housing to pay the average rent of $572 a week

Soaring rents have made living alone impossible for Australia’s essential workers: new research shows some would have to spend around two-thirds of their income to afford a place on their own.

Comparing the average weekly unit rents against award wages for 15 essential jobs, the national housing campaign Everybody’s Home found there were virtually no regions of Australia where a single full-time essential worker, such as those in aged care, early childhood or nursing, could afford to rent by themselves.

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State treasurers propose targeting men to work in care sector to boost productivity

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Board of treasurers’ submission to employment white paper taskforce suggests making training flexible and promoting regional jobs

Targeting men to work in the child, aged and disability care sectors is one idea proposed by the state treasurers to boost productivity, challenge gender stereotypes and address workforce shortages.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will release more than 400 submissions made to the employment white paper taskforce on Saturday.

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Addressing gender stereotypes, workforce shortages and productivity in the care sector by targeting mid-career men for retraining and upskilling.

Making training for the job you want (as opposed to the job you have) tax deductible.

Providing incentives for employers to hire employees from underrepresented cohorts.

Creating pathways for First Nations people to work on major regional projects.

Exploring incentives for university graduates and highly skilled migrants to work in regional areas.

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Laura Tingle becomes ABC staff-elected director – as it happened

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The 7.30 political correspondent will sit on the broadcaster’s board alongside chair Ita Buttrose. This blog is now closed

Report of new gas tax for Australia

The Australian Financial Review is this morning reporting that a new gas tax looms as the government tries to raise revenue to begin budget repair.

Major companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos and Shell and their tax advisers have signed confidentiality agreements with Treasury on the PRRT consultation.

Since Treasury resumed the stalled work for Labor late last year, it has cast the net wider to probe other PRRT areas, such as deductions, in an attempt to raise revenue sooner for the government from the profits-based tax.

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