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.
The ACTU says that a trading halt on Virgin Australia shares underlines the need for an urgent Federal Government package to support the aviation industry.
The Opposition and legal experts have questioned why the JobKeeper rules appear to leave out the "one in, all in" requirement spelt out in their explanatory statement, and have canvassed what it might mean for employers wanting to negotiate trade-offs.
The ACCC has granted urgent interim authorisation to enable life insurers to co-ordinate to ensure a broad range of frontline healthcare workers are not excluded from coverage due to potential or actual exposure to COVID-19.
The IR system will need to change to deal with challenges arising from the COVID-19 "new normal" of working from home, according to a briefing paper by the Centre for Future Work.
The FWC will consider an ACTU push for frontline health workers to have access to paid leave on multiple occasions if they are required to self-isolate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As legislation establishing the Morrison Government's $1500 JobKeeper wage subsidy passed through Parliament without amendments last night, aviation unions and the ACTU are on several fronts challenging how Qantas intends to apply it.
A six-member FWC full bench has today made a coronavirus-driven change to 99 modern awards to temporarily give an estimated 4.4 million workers access to two weeks unpaid "pandemic leave" and enable them to take annual leave at half pay.
The Morrison Government's legislation for the $1500 JobKeeper payments, to about six million workers, which has now passed the lower house, is based on Federal Treasurer John Frydenberg setting rules to govern how the payments are made and administered.
