Unions are asking the FWC to reject the Albanese Government's proposed phase-in schedule for Stage 3 work value pay rises of up to 13.5% in aged care, but employers say they are "commercially compelled" to support it to protect the sector's viability.
The FWC has transferred workers from BHP's in-house labour hire arm to direct employment with the new owners of a former BHP Coal mine, finding it "consistent" with the intent of the Fair Work Act's new "same-job, same-pay" protections.
Employers have succeeded in varying an award clause a FWC full bench agrees could produce the "absurd" result of workers receiving five times the prescribed minimum rates.
The FWC has observed that an employer "is not a charity", in rejecting a claim from a former risk manager for an insolvent cryptocurrency trader that his award-covered role did not change despite successive $50,000 promotions over just 15 months.
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.
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 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.
Direct care workers in aged care will receive total work value pay rises of up to 28.5% after a five-member FWC full bench handed down its final ruling today.
The FWC has identified 11 award provisions, extending to overtime, reasonable additional hours and on-call, that might interact with new terms to entrench the right to disconnect, ahead of the new laws taking effect in late August.
