An FWC full bench has approved a Restaurant and Catering Industrial proposal to streamline restaurant award classifications, exempt higher-paid workers from key award conditions for more pay and introduce all-in allowances, but has provided for its fairness and efficiency to be reviewed after nine months.
FWC President Iain Ross will next week convene a private conference of employers groups, unions and federal and NSW governments to canvass possible temporary changes to awards in response to the COVID-19 lockdown in Greater Sydney, after a request today from the ACTU.
Employer groups have welcomed talks with the Morrison Government on the part they can play in advancing the vaccine rollout once Pfizer supplies improve, including workplace vaccinations, but they are still awaiting assurances on indemnity and liability.
The FWC has avoided "unconscionable injustice" to a female Qantas pilot, finding it lacked the power to deal with colleagues' belated challenge to her seniority during a COVID-19-driven "every man for themselves" scramble for the lifeboats.
In the wake of National Cabinet last night agreeing to make COVID-19 inoculations compulsory for residential aged worker, the ACTU says that what "really needs to be mandated is a vaccine team visiting every aged care home".
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.
The FWC has upheld a Qube subsidiary's sacking of a truck driver who blamed a positive blood alcohol reading on sucking on three-quarters of a 10-pack of Anticol cough lozenges to counter a dry throat.
The Berejiklian Coalition Government will relax its COVID-19 public sector wage freeze from July 1, moving back to the former 2.5%-a-year cap, and introduce paid leave for workers who suffer a stillbirth or miscarriage.
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.
