Surging coronavirus cases in Victoria have today prompted an FWC full bench to seek urgent submissions on a provisional view that it should now vary the aged care award to provide paid pandemic leave for employees, including casuals, who must self-isolate.
An employer that cut a manager's wages by 15% due to COVID-19, but then restored her old rate when it made her redundant, has failed to establish that her pay exceeded the high-income threshold because to do otherwise would allow "manipulation" to deny her the chance to challenge her dismissal.
Qantas has launched a Federal Court case against the FAAA to clarify whether it can keep paying fortnightly penalty rates in arrears while receiving JobKeeper, as the ASU accuses it of "stealing" by counting them against the wrong top-up period.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has criticised a law firm that experienced a coronavirus outbreak for refusing to allow employees to work from home, as Melbourne prepares for an inspection blitz in response to workplaces emerging as the key transmission point for the hundreds of daily cases.
The "obvious impracticability" of sanitising a koala helped to justify a pandemic-affected wildlife sanctuary's decision to make redundant a worker responsible for co-ordinating photographs of visitors holding its main attraction, the FWC has found.
In a decision reinforcing the need for pandemic-affected employers to spread the burden fairly, the FWC has found that a multi-billion-dollar business should have reduced hours across a head office team instead of standing down one of its members for an indefinite period.
In a decision highlighting the need for JobKeeper-enabling directions to be reasonable, an FWC full bench has quashed a finding that Prosegur rightly required full-time, part-time and casual armoured vehicle operators to work a minimum 25 hours a week.
Hutchison Ports has won an extended five-day notice period for industrial action after failing to do so last year, winning a ruling that the coronavirus pandemic has tipped the balance and created exceptional circumstances.
In a coronavirus-driven strategy shift, the Fair Work Ombudsman will temporarily consider the "impact on viability" when deciding whether to prosecute employers, but has stressed it will still require underpayments to be made good.
