A BHP subsidiary has been hit with a slew of bargaining orders after an FWC presidential member found it repeatedly shifted the goalposts over two years to delay making an agreement with coal mine supervisors.
The FWC has ordered an aged care provider to restore leave days to employees it directed to stay away from work over COVID-19 transmission fears, observing "it's just the right thing to do".
In a case likely to be closely watched by employers considering mandatory coronavirus vaccinations, the FWC will probe whether Ozcare unfairly sacked a long serving care assistant who refused a compulsory flu shot on allergy grounds, while the Commission has also weighed-in on the contentious issue of compulsory jabs for Santas.
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.
The FWC has found employers are not obliged to keep workers on the payroll because of JobKeeper's availability, but has awarded a manager compensation for unfair dismissal that included 24 weeks of the job subsidy, because retaining him would have been "entirely consistent" with the scheme's objectives.
Home-based workers will be able to negotiate their preferred hours and breaks under COVID-19-related award flexibilities likely to be approved by the FWC this week.
After revoking a finding that a worker was entitled to carer's leave as his mother could not look after his children due to COVID-19 concerns, the FWC has found he met the bar for only one day and can "split the different" on repaying the rest.
A church caretaker who asked why he was left out of JobKeeper is suing its vicar and executive for sham contracting, alleging they tried to reframe his employment and sacked him when he failed to sign an independent contract.
Qantas has welcomed today's full Federal Court majority ruling in the Jobkeeper Case, saying it made the wage subsidy payments to employees in accordance with ATO advice.
A managing director's attempt to "point-score" during hearings into the dismissal of an employee who feared a gun-owning co-worker has been decried by an FWC commissioner as among the "poorest displays" from a respondent she has encountered in five years on the Commission.
