In a sign of the continuing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19's impact on workplaces, the FWC will consider extending millions of award-covered employees' entitlement to two weeks unpaid "pandemic leave" to the end of June next year.
The ACTU's bid for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave has been bolstered by new FWC-commissioned research indicating that a third of recent agreements have a paid entitlement and half of those deals provide at least the quantum the peak body is seeking.
The FWC's minimum wage panel has revealed that it is developing a consumer price index for low paid households and a budget of discretionary items required to participate in society, while one of its members says the pandemic will make that already difficult task even more complex.
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 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.
Hospitality industry employers have won approval to roll up overtime, penalty and split-shift rates for full-time higher-paid workers after a FWC full bench rejected union concerns that changing the award for a small cohort could leave a broader group of employees worse off.
Higher-paid hospitality workers appear set to have their overtime and penalty payments rolled up into loaded rates after a FWC full bench yesterday provisionally supported employers' push to vary the sector's award.
Higher-paid hospitality workers' overtime and penalty payments would be rolled up into loaded rates under an award variation proposed by employers in response to COVID-19's impact on the industry.
