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 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.
The FWC's review of awards in sectors hammered by the pandemic is starting to introduce changes stymied by the withdrawal of much of the IR Omnibus Bill, according to former Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James.
Replies are due in the FWC by next Wednesday to union and employer submissions on how awards should define casual employment, if they should set out how casual loading compensates for specific entitlements and whether a model conversion clause measures up.
Requests by two HR consultancies to extend coronavirus-driven award variations providing more flexibility to work from home have prompted the FWC to expand the window for submissions on its provisional view that the measures should be wound up.
Early childhood employers have told a FWC full bench that foreshadowed work value increases to teachers' award rates will impose a "significant financial impost" given the Morrison Government did not commit funding for it in this month's Budget.
The ANMF has filed a work value application seeking a 25% increase for nurses, nursing assistants and personal care workers in residential and home-based aged care after the FWC refused to delay the HSU's work value case to provide more time for collaboration.
The NSW IRC has awarded police a 1.75% pay rise after finding their award does not reflect productivity and efficiency improvements since 2011, but the state's paramedics will get only 0.3% with a one-off payment to boost their first year's increase to $1000.
An FWC full bench has decided to insert broken shift allowances, boost minimum engagements and improve sleepover conditions as part of its four-yearly review of the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award.
