An FWC full bench has asked the Morrison Government whether it will boost funding to compensate employers if it grants a contested $5-an-hour COVID-19 allowance claim for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients.
Three unions and an employer group have applied to introduce a temporary hourly allowance of almost $5 an hour for disability workers to compensate the sector's low-paid workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A major gas supplier has been ordered to reinstate a left-handed worker whose primary duties involved lifting five-kilogram cylinders, after basing his dismissal on an assessment that right shoulder and neck pain meant he could lift no more than 20kgs.
The FWC, in contrasting redundancy decisions delivered on the same day, has agreed to slash the payment a small, pandemic-affected business must make to a worker, but has rejected another employer's bid to do the same for three of its former employees.
An FWU conference convened this afternoon to consider granting paid pandemic leave to vulnerable workers heard that the ACTU has asked Comcare and state-based workcover schemes to declare COVID-19 an occupational disease within the health industry.
Baiada workers have voted to accept the same deal they rejected a month ago, after the FWC dismissed a union bid for bargaining orders to return the chicken giant to COVID-affected negotiations.
The ACTU is pressing crossbenchers to oppose the Morrison Government's proposal to amend the Fair Work Act to temporarily provide more flexibility in awards and agreements to deal with the coronavirus crisis when it legislates the JobKeeper wage subsidy program this week.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described his government's close consultation with the Opposition in drafting legislation to give effect to the JobKeeper coronavirus wage subsidy program that will be put to Parliament next week, while joining IR Minister Christian Porter in thanking unions for their cooperation in achieving "massive" temporary IR changes.
