A majority of employer organisations have heatedly rejected a joint position agreed between the Business Council of Australia and the ACTU over changes to the law covering agreement-making, while IR Minister Christian Porter says discussions are continuing and that differences of opinion should come as no surprise.
A $5 an hour "COVID-19 care allowance" for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients is unnecessary and likely to trigger a push to insert it into other health sector and aged care awards, according to an FWC full bench.
The FWC has given any objectors a week to put their views on extending special coronavirus-driven flexibilities in 71 modern awards until the end of March, when the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ends.
A long-serving pilot thought to have spent more than $13,500 contesting his redundancy has been awarded compensation of one week's pay, after the FWC held it was not genuine due to a lack of consultation.
The FWC has taken the initiative of releasing a draft award schedule addressing working-from-home arrangements, describing it as conversation-starter that recognises the need to adapt to COVID-19 realities.
An employer's failure to consult and consider ways to keep a worker on the payroll before it dismissed him in the days after JobKeeper's announcement rendered his redundancy non-genuine, the FWC has ruled.
An FWC full bench has baulked at extending paid pandemic leave to award-covered disability services and ambulance workers, saying there was insufficient evidence of a "threat to the resilience" of care in those sectors.
The Morrison Government has confirmed it is considering how the "temporary flexibilities" given to employers under the Fair Work Act to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic can be extended.
An FWC full bench has today rejected a "misconceived' bid by construction employers to "level the playing field" by extending JobKeeper award flexibilities to ineligible companies in the sector, but has left the door open for changes due to the new Level 4 restrictions implemented in response to Victoria's second coronavirus wave.
