Paid pandemic leave for aged care workers looks set to end this month after a five-member FWC bench concluded that the "emergency circumstances" that impelled it to make award changes in the first place no longer exist.
The FWC will this morning deal with objections to the fast-tracking of a joint union and Master Grocers Australia flexible hours award variation for part-time retail workers, and calls to join the bid with a "far more meritorious" ABI and NSW Business Chamber proposal.
RAFFWU expects to oppose a "disastrous" joint union and Master Grocers Australia proposal to let part-time retail workers put in more hours without earning overtime, but the ACTU says it will help them lock in increased hours while combating surging casualisation.
A Melbourne hotel that claimed an inability to engage in face-to-face discussions before making a chef redundant during the city's second COVID-19 lockdown must compensate her for unfair dismissal, after falling foul of award consultation obligations.
More than half of private sector clerks included in a survey to inform a possible coronavirus-driven award variation have been working from home since the middle of last year and almost three quarters of employers intend to let them continue doing so at least some of the time.
McDonald's, the sole corporation to make a submission to the Omnibus Bill inquiry, is calling for substantial amendments to casual conversion provisions and the BOOT, indicating the legislation's changes to the latter are insufficient to renew its interest in enterprise bargaining.
The ALP caucus today resolved to oppose the Morrison Government's Omnibus IR Bill in its entirety, in a major shift from the more cooperative approach taken towards emergency legislation last year at the height of the pandemic.
The Australian Hotels Association has proposed ahead of further conferences next week in the loaded rates case that the FWC extend the range of ordinary working hours when it considers simplified pay arrangements for the hospitality and retail sectors.
A five-member FWC full bench has confirmed the provisional view it reached in August last year that there is not a strong enough case, with the COVID-19 pandemic relatively well-controlled in Australia, to insert paid pandemic in awards covering paramedics and NDIS, home care and patient transport workers.
If the FWC incorporates loaded rates in hospitality and retail awards after a referral from IR Minister Christian Porter, it is likely to involve a range of such rates rather than a single one, the tribunal's president indicated in a statement today.
