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Workplace

Today

Gender diversity is increasing on ASX 300 boards.

Push to delay ASX diversity rules until 2026

Key members of the ASX Corporate Governance Council will push to delay diversity reporting for listed companies until 2026, at a meeting of industry CEOs on Friday.

  • Patrick Durkin

Yesterday

The new director of Artspace, Victor Wang.

From Chengdu to Woolloomooloo for this arts boss

The new director of Artspace, a centre for contemporary art in Sydney, is a rare executive in the local scene who has curated in mainland China.

  • Updated
  • Michael Bailey

This Month

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra chair, Edgar Myer

‘He was Switzerland’: Edgar Myer to chair MSO as court battle looms

The anthropologist and lawyer turned fund manager and philanthropist takes the orchestra’s helm ahead of a court date with pianist Jayson Gillham.

  • Michael Bailey
State-sponsored regulatory and third-party workplace interference threatens to kill productivity and prosperity.

Bizarre new era of industrial relations must be unwound

State-sponsored and third-party interference threatens to kill workplace productivity and prosperity. Here are eight ways to fix the situation.

  • Steve Knott

Woolworths orders 10,000 staff back to the office

Supermarket chain Woolworths has told its 10,000 office-based workers they will have to attend the workplace at least three days a week from October. 

  • Euan Black
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McDonald’s crew trainer Connor Boyle.

Inside the fight over McDonald’s 100,000 low-paid worker army

Crew trainer Connor Boyle is part of a test case to extend multi-employer bargaining laws to the types of workforces unions have always struggled to organise.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Professor Genevieve Bell embarked on a major cost-saving plan and restructure at Australian National University last year.

Leaked consulting firm slide deck gives hints on ANU job cuts

A secret document from Nous Group, which has been hired by ANU to push through job cuts, was left behind in a staff lunchroom exposing restructure plans.

  • Julie Hare
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is one of several US business leaders to have retreated from DEI initiatives since Trump’s re-election.

The business case for diversity is not always clear-cut

HR bosses say DEI is good for the bottom line. Critics emboldened by Donald Trump say that’s not backed by evidence. Who’s right?

  • Euan Black
Andrew Forrest has opened the floor for his “troops” to ask management anything they want.

At Fortescue, you really can ask the boss anything

A permanent ‘Ask-Us-Anything’ portal has prompted staff demands for everything from an office swimming pool to $100,000 cash prizes to more biscuits in kitchenettes.

  • Hannah Wootton

January

Jargon can make listeners zone out.

Tracking and decoding corporate jargon

A tracker of our growing list of corporatespeak – and our suggestions for plain-language alternatives. Consider it your jargon dictionary.

  • Updated
  • Edmund Tadros
Kath Van Der Merwe from Telstra, Michelle Williams from Lottery,  christine Parker from Westpac, Jane Franks from ASX, Nicole Reid from Xero, Elisa Narone, from REA.

The workforce challenges keeping these HR bosses up at night

BOSS talks to six human resources executives about challenges they face in 2025. Rethinking diversity programs may not be one of them, but there are many others.

  • Sally Patten, Patrick Durkin and Euan Black
Jillian Broadbent, Macquarie director.

‘You would be tone-deaf’ to ignore Trump’s ESG backlash

Macquarie Group director Jillian Broadbent says companies need to be sensible about their push for greater diversity, particularly when faced with immediate challenges such as a cost of living crisis.

  • Updated
  • Patrick Durkin and Hans van Leeuwen
Woolworths argued that the retail award’s prescriptive rostering rules prevented it from giving managers the flexibility of a modern workplace.

Overtime rates for retail workers could be axed in employer push

Major supermarkets and other retailers have joined a case to exempt senior staff from award conditions, waive “outdated” smoko breaks and allow split shifts.

  • David Marin-Guzman
Leaders at Davos made it clear the MAGA vision of corporate life will be resisted by boardrooms.

A woke mining boss shows why Trump’s DEI crusade will fail

Davos showed how many companies are convinced diversity and environmental measures make financial sense.

  • Updated
  • Pilita Clark
ASX CEO Helen Lofthouse wants to emphasise the corporate governance principles are if not, why not.

ASX governance council splits over DEI

Business groups want to water down the proposed rules for boards to report on diversity characteristics, amid a backlash following Donald Trump’s re-election.

  • Patrick Durkin and James Eyers
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BHP’s Peak Downs mine is one of the three mines targeted under the same job, same pay laws.

Unions want ‘same-looking job, same pay’: BHP

BHP lawyers have urged the umpire to adopt a “big picture” approach to exemptions from same job, same pay laws for the company’s labour hire firms.

  • David Marin-Guzman
BHP estimated in 2023 that the Albanese government’s labour-hire laws could cost the miner an extra $1.3 billion in annual operating costs.

The gap between providing ‘labour’ and ‘services’ could be $49k a year

Workers employed by BHP subsidiaries and labour-hire firms are paid much less to do the same work as its direct workforce, unions argue in a major test case.

  • Euan Black
Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg says workplaces need more ‘masculine energy’. He’s wrong

The Meta chief executive wants to celebrate aggression, but his suggestion that office life has become less competitive is nonsense, even amid all the home-baked treats.

  • Jo Ellison
It may seem like you need to be seen to be noticed in the competitive corporate world, but there are plenty of ways for introverts to get ahead.

The thing about rich bosses

Wealthy managers are increasingly isolated from the less well-off at work and that’s not good news.

  • Pilita Clark
Sydney train drivers are among those striking over pay. They earn an average annual salary of $128,196 a year, including overtime and bonuses.

What train drivers, psychiatrists and others get paid

The recent spate of disruptive industrial disputes between governments and public sector workers has sparked conversations about how much these employees earn.

  • Euan Black

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/workplace-hzd