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.
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.
The RBA says it new enterprise deal complies with the public sector pay cap in the Federal Government's workplace bargaining policy, despite delivering a guaranteed pay rise of 2.9% in the first year and what is likely to be about 4% in the second year.
Melbourne's largest water retailer has had its new agreement quashed after realising, two days after its approval, that it submitted a draft version to the FWC for approval.
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.
The UWU has welcomed a new agreement that pays a 10% increase over three years to about 3000 Star Sydney casino workers and boosts annual leave to five weeks.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected StarTrack's bid to stop a 24-hour strike by TWU members, finding "little evidence" that the protected action would affect delivery of critical medical supplies such as COVID-19 vaccines.
The FWC has questioned the "utility" of hearing an IBM software engineer's application to insert up to five days paid vaccination leave into "Schedule X" in the professional services award, as the rapid uptake of inoculations and the schedule's expiry at the end of the year means there might be "little, if any, work" for it do.
In a decision illustrating the delicate balancing act required of the FWC when considering axing old agreements, a recently-employed worker has succeeding in having a security company's 15-year-old deal scrapped over the loud objections of all but a few of his fellow employees.
