A FWC full bench has made a provisional ruling in favour of ensuring the lowest pay classification in modern awards is used only for a short period of induction and training, making the second lowest rate the benchmark for continuing employment.
Unions and employers have flagged support for permitting award-covered employees to extend their annual leave by taking it at half pay, in what might be the sole area of consensus arising from the work and care tranche of the FWC's modern awards review, but they are yet to agree on "safeguards".
The Federal Government "strongly supports" the Stage 3 pay increases of up to 13.5% determined in the aged care work value case, but wants them phased-in, with half to be paid in January next year and the remainder in January 2026.
The FWC is seeking submissions on the latest phase of its research on gender-based occupational segregation, which has been released ahead of this year's annual wage review.
The Australian Human Resources Institute has told the FWC's modern awards review that it opposes any expansion of working from home rights and does not support narrowing the grounds for refusing flexible work requests to "unjustifiable hardship".
The FWC has expressed dismay at a large aged care employer's "shift bidding" system in which it offers part-time workers extra hours only at ordinary pay, recommending instead that each employee get a chance to cap how many such shifts they are prepared to work without receiving overtime rates.
The FWC's minimum wage panel should award an increase of no more than 2% in this year's annual wage review, according to peak employer group ACCI, partly to correct "errors" in the Commission's analysis in its last two rulings.
The ANMF is seeking pay rises of up to 35% for an estimated 250,000 nurses, nursing assistants and midwives as part of a work value claim intended to build on the wins of the related aged care case and extend the "recognition" to other healthcare settings.
