Labor leader Bill Shorten and early childhood education spokeswoman Amanda Rishworth at the Deakin & Community Childcare Co-operative in Burwood, Melbourne.
DANIEL POCKETT/AAP
Unions and Labor have a long history of working together, but if the ALP wins office, unions will have to compete with many other groups to get what they want.
Bill Shorten with students at the CMA Training Group in Canberra. If he restores Sunday penalty rates, his success will come at a cost.
Sean Davey/AAP
At this election there is a stark choice between the two major parties on industrial relations: the “small target” approach of the Coalition and the ALP’s more ambitious and detailed plan.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten at a manufacturing facility in Sydney. He’ll instruct the Fair Work Commission to replace the minimum wage with a higher “living wage”.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
It ought to be possible to replace Australia’s minimum wage with a higher “living wage” without putting people our of work, but more will be needed.
Australian Prime Minister Stanley Bruce and Prime Minister-elect James Scullin hold a private meeting a day before Scullin takes office in 1929.
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Only twice have Australian electors chosen to vote out a sitting prime minister. Both times, industrial relations was the key. What can we learn from that?
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann and Employment Michaelia Cash during debate over the 2017 Australian Building and Construction Commission Bill.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
McCormack must live in a parallel universe if he ever thought Broad’s account of flying off on an overseas date, followed by an apparent move to extract money from him, was just “a personal matter”.
The area of greater uncertainty under Labor is a very different one –
that is, how much of the unions’ agenda a Shorten government would be willing to embrace.
Daniel Pockett/AAP
In the lead up to next week’s ALP national conference, which Shorten
needs to run smoothly, the government has been trying to exploit what
it sees as a Labor weak point – border protection.
Disruption does not always drive the most monumental or ingenious innovation. The stress of running from wolves is hardly conducive to good planning.
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Necessity and desperation are portrayed as the prime motivators of innovative behaviour, but in reality, stability and holistic incentives go a long way to freeing up creative energy.
McManus says the present industrial relations system has “excessive, unnecessary and sometimes confusing rules” that hamper parties reaching agreement.
Julian Smith/AAP
There are 750,000 fewer workers under enterprise agreements now than when the Coalition was elected, McManus says in her speech to the John Curtin Research Centre.
Brendan O'Connor on Labor’s industrial relations agenda
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O'Connor says Labor remains totally opposed to the government's Ensuring Integrity legislation, which the Coalition wants to resurrect. "I can't see this bill in any way being salvageable."
After a long industrial campaign, Amazon workers in Italy have persuaded their employer to reach an agreement with them.
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Even with the most favourable laws, unions will still need to confront the reality of a dramatic transformation in the world of work.
The bulk of potential new jobs associated with automation at Amazon are unlikely to happen in Australia - but rather where robots are developed and manufactured.
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Professional sports is bucking major trends in industrial relations, such as a marked decline in both union membership and industrial disputes over recent decades.
The crunch for platforms will come when labour market conditions improve and workers have more alternatives.
Neil Hall/Reuters