Labour academics analysing the Closing Loopholes No 2 Bill ahead of its expected passage into law say the right to disconnect signals a "momentous societal shift" in the value placed on work, wellbeing and private time, while gig work reforms are "world leading" but they question the narrowing of casuals' pathway to permanency.
A Clive Palmer-owned business must pay a worker almost $40,000 for dismissing him by email along with 125 other employees, claiming he failed to work his hours amid site-wide fraud, theft and dishonesty,, and then asking him to re-apply for his job 20 minutes later.
The Senate this afternoon passed the Closing Loopholes No 2 legislation after accepting amendments advanced by the Albanese Government, the Greens and crossbench senators David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie and Lidia Thorpe.
The Albanese Government has put forward a bundle of its own amendments to the Closing Loopholes legislation, including a requirement that collective agreements covering regulated employee-like gig economy workers and road transport workers meet a public interest test.
A football club's "deficient" investigation and lack of procedural fairness rendered unfair its sacking of a worker for spreading "false and degrading s-xualised rumours" in the workplace, the FWC has found.
The Greens says they have secured support from the Albanese Government and Senate crossbenchers for a legislated right for workers to disconnect from "unreasonable" out-of-hours contact from their employers.
CSL has fended off interim orders that would have halted negotiations for a new deal for workers at a flagship vaccine-making facility due to start operating in 2026, after unions raised concerns that a leaked internal document revealed plans to undermine existing pay and conditions.
The former head of the ACCC is today calling for an easing of secondary boycott prohibitions in competition law, in the final report of the price gouging inquiry he conducted for the ACTU.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke says that talks about introducing a right to disconnect have shifted away from fines for offending employers and towards an "absolute ban" on them penalising workers who disengage outside working hours.
A federal government department has failed to convince the FWC that Australia's "access to democracy" could be under threat if it is not given more time to prepare for potential strike action.