The Fair Work Act's stand down provisions enabled employers to shift the pandemic's economic risks to employees, according to new analysis by IR law experts Anthony Forsyth and Andrew Stewart, who also say legal uncertainty about the provisions could imperil the stand down strategies used by companies such as Qantas as business gradually resumes.
Australia had less need than other countries to turn to legislation to provide short-term workplace flexibility in response to COVID-19 because of "swift" and "bold" yet self-restrained interventions by the FWC, according to new research.
BHP's announcement that its workforce will have to be vaccinated by the end of January has failed to win support from the miners' union, with a State leader championing the alternative of education and incentives while pointing out that the company is not the direct employer of most of its workers.
The TWU is threatening a nationwide 24-hour strike by thousands of workers at five major transport companies if they fail to agree to key anti-outsourcing bargaining claims within the next week.
The insights gained from the rapid shift to working from home during COVID-19 could lead to the adoption of a "genuine consultation" requirement under the Fair Work Act's "right to request" flexibility that might start "a conversation aimed at reaching a mutually suitable arrangement", according to a new paper by two leading IR academics.
Vaccination mandate for WA resources sector; CFMMEU preparing to expel rioting members; FWO claws back underpayments for hotel quarantine security guards; High Court to consider jurisdictional question.
A Queensland-based operation that establishes and runs incorporated associations to compete with registered unions is looking to tap into public unease over workplace vaccination mandates to grow their membership nationally.
The FWC has thrown out a request from an ambulance paramedic sacked for refusing the influenza vaccination to refer purported questions of law to the Federal Court.
WorkSafe Victoria has laid 58 charges against the State's health department for exposing workers to a serious risk of death or serious illness in the first stage of its COVID-19 hotel quarantine program, but it is not pursuing leaders of the program or government ministers.
Qantas has struck enterprise agreements covering about 450 regional pilots at Sunstate and Eastern, the first to be negotiated since it announced a two-year wage freeze in May as part of its COVID-19 recovery plan.