The FWC has used the further extension of COVID-19-related flexibilities in the clerks award to advance its campaign for enduring changes in working-from-home arrangements, calling on employers and unions to report back on possible variations to address the issue by early next month.
The FWC has extended COVID-19 flexibility clauses in 74 modern awards until the end of March, while employers are proposing to follow the same path for the clerical award in the face of union opposition.
The Federal Circuit Court has expressed "hesitation and regret" in accepting that while a DJ was a casual rather than an independent contractor, his underpayments claim must fail as his work was not covered by an award.
A $5 an hour "COVID-19 care allowance" for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients is unnecessary and likely to trigger a push to insert it into other health sector and aged care awards, according to an FWC full bench.
The FWC has given any objectors a week to put their views on extending special coronavirus-driven flexibilities in 71 modern awards until the end of March, when the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ends.
An FWC full bench has quashed a decision to reduce a $12,000 retrenchment payout to zero, ruling that the Fair Work Act's "incapacity to pay" provisions don't apply when the entitlement arises from a source such as an award.
A long-serving pilot thought to have spent more than $13,500 contesting his redundancy has been awarded compensation of one week's pay, after the FWC held it was not genuine due to a lack of consultation.
The FWC has taken the initiative of releasing a draft award schedule addressing working-from-home arrangements, describing it as conversation-starter that recognises the need to adapt to COVID-19 realities.
A federal court judge has in fining an underpaying juice shop operator almost $35,000 flatly rejected "cultur[al] differences" as a mitigating factor, lamenting instead the frequency with which ethnically diverse employers exploit their own communities.
