The Fair Work Commission has terminated a Work Choices agreement between the AWU and a Spotless subsidiary that saved the employer about $2 million a year in wages and penalty rates.
A FWC full bench has today acceded to employer requests to change annual leave provisions in modern awards to enable cashing-out of up to two weeks a year and give employers a qualified power to require employees to take "excessive" accruals.
The AWU's Victorian branch received up to $25,000 a year from a Spotless Group subsidiary under a memorandum of understanding that meant cleaners were not paid penalty rates, the Heydon Royal Commission heard today.
Tensions over the new national agreement covering Coles supermarkets has boiled over into angry public exchanges between officials from the SDA and the meatworkers' union.
The stevedoring award contains "inflated" penalty rates that are out of proportion to those applying in other industries, a senior FWC member has found in a decision in which he was overruled by a full bench majority.
Modern award transfer of business provisions that guarantee a new employer's recognition of prior service are set to be adjusted after a FWC full bench found they conflict with the National Employment Standards.
The AiG and unions are at odds over time in lieu and make-up pay provisions in modern awards, with the employer group critical of an AMWU push to calculate TOIL at overtime rates and the ACTU in turn arguing the AiG's proposal would reduce existing entitlements.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has rejected an employer's appeal against an award coverage ruling, saying it might be "inappropriate" to use the "substantial character" approach to determining which modern award applies.
The NSW Business Chamber has formally applied for the Fair Work Commission to introduce new rules in modern awards covering more than 500,000 micro businesses that employ fewer than five workers.
A modern award is set to be stripped of a discriminatory clause that has prevented 13 older employees accessing between 40 and 60 weeks redundancy pay over the past 18 months.
