The FWC has given the Federal Government a fortnight to reply to unions' requests for detailed data on aged care funding and its willingness to cover any increases awarded in their work value claims, after the tribunal agreed to join three HSU and ANMF applications.
Retail employers and their part-time employees will be able to agree to extra hours by text message or email, under changes to the industry award that followed a request from the IR minister.
An FWC full bench, in overturning a finding that the engineers, scientists and IT professionals award does not apply to an LNG consultant, has suggested reviewing its coverage provisions after "excessive litigation" to establish whether it covers unfair dismissal applicants.
The FWC has approved a 2.5% increase in all award rates in its minimum wage ruling handed down this afternoon and has again delayed rises for sectors most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The FWC's review of awards in sectors hammered by the pandemic is starting to introduce changes stymied by the withdrawal of much of the IR Omnibus Bill, according to former Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James.
A call centre worker required to interact overnight with Westpac customers via its social media accounts has failed to convince the FWC his new duties should have bumped him up to a higher classification.
A full bench has quashed a finding that a meatworker is not entitled to payment for time involved in putting on and removing PPE during a half-hour unpaid meal break, but has held an employer's silence did not give the FWC power to arbitrate on the before- and after-work requirement.
Requests by two HR consultancies to extend coronavirus-driven award variations providing more flexibility to work from home have prompted the FWC to expand the window for submissions on its provisional view that the measures should be wound up.
Early childhood employers have told a FWC full bench that foreshadowed work value increases to teachers' award rates will impose a "significant financial impost" given the Morrison Government did not commit funding for it in this month's Budget.
