With the legislation now through both houses of parliament, The National Disability Insurance Scheme, or DisabilityCare, is law, and will quickly become a defining feature of Australia’s social policy…
Ignore the hype: the Coalition’s IR policy won’t boost productivity in Australia.
Paul Miller/ AAP
More than jobs, inflation, security or disputation, the Coalition’s just-released policy on industrial relations claims to be about productivity.
The policy is replete with over 30 references to “productivity…
Tony Abbott’s industrial relations policy launch attempts to neutralise Labor’s advantage and bed down fears of a resurgence of WorkChoices.
Industrial relations is the one area of public policy that traditionally marks a major fault line between the Coalition parties and Labor. It is also one area of policy where neither side finds it easy…
There are sound business reasons for supporting staff with cancer.
Michael Lokner
Cancer is now the leading cause of death and disability in Australia. One in two males and one in three females living to the age of 85 in Australia receives a cancer diagnosis at some stage in his or…
Employment Minister Bill Shorten says the Fair Work Act review shows the regime doesn’t impact negatively on productivity.
Perceptions of widespread union militancy in Australia’s industrial relations environment is generally unfounded, according to the University of Melbourne’s Professor of Management, Peter Gahan.
Recommendations…
Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten has ruled out making any sweeping changes to the Fair Work Act.
AAP
The post implementation review of the Fair Work Act, 2009, was released this afternoon. A three member panel – Professor Ron McCallum, Dr John Edwards and Michael Moore – produced the three hundred–odd…
Equal pay is not the only obstacle women face in the labour market: there’s also higher unemployment, underemployment, and heightened risk of job insecurity.
Victor
The quest for equal pay between men and women represents one of the oldest battle lines for feminism. The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) finds that women’s wages are now 17…
The idea that Australians work longer hours than workers from other countries is a myth.
Flickr/hongoxl
Many economic and social commentators, including the University of Canberra’s Josh Fear on The Conversation yesterday, continue to express concern about the number of hours many Australians spend doing…
Workers are finding it increasingly difficult to leave work on time or enjoy their free time.
Flickr/Floris M. Oosterveld
Today is national Go Home on Time Day, the one day of the year that you can work the hours you are paid for and no more – without feeling guilty. Since The Australia Institute first declared Go Home on…
After 20 years of enterprise bargaining, are we seeing an unintended return to compulsory arbitration?
AAP
With the threat of further industrial action at Qantas looming and Victorian nurses continuing with their rolling work bans, you could be forgiven for thinking that Australia has entered a new phase of…
In debate over the Qantas IR dispute, the truth of the Fair Work Act is the elephant in the room.
AAP
The drawn-out dispute between Qantas and unions that led to the airline’s entire fleet being grounded over the weekend has sparked calls for reform of Australia’s industrial relations laws.
Business leaders…
Tony Abbott has tough decisions to make on workplace reform before the next election.
AAP
In one of the most significant moments of the 2010 federal election campaign, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott declared the Coalition’s unpopular WorkChoices policy “dead, buried, cremated.”
In an interview…
Equal pay is a test case for employers, who frequently appear not to recognise gender pay disparity.
AAP
Last week’s Equal Pay Day highlighted the fact that despite decades of supposed reform, women’s average full-time weekly earnings remains 17.2% below men.
Is this obvious to our employers? Worryingly…
New research suggests a bit of clutter actually helps us be more productive.
Flickr/Maggiejumps
BHP copped a fair amount of flak for a leaked memo which outlined its daunting list of rules about employee behaviours.
BHP’s “office environment standard” reportedly includes making staff remove post…
Few in the Liberal party are keen to see a potentially damaging return to the workplace debate.
AAP
With political debate dominated by carbon and mining taxes, the recent stirrings by Peter Reith about industrial relations may have come as a bit of a surprise – out of left field, if you will excuse the…
