The ACTU has thrown its support behind a push for a COVID-19 "vulnerable worker" payment where at-risk employees could voluntarily stay at home and continue to be paid in full.
In what represents a breach of some of the strictest workplace biosecurity controls in the country, a $315 million apartment project in Melbourne's CBD has been shut for a "hospital grade" clean after 12 coronavirus cases were confirmed among construction workers.
In an instructive decision on when employers should communicate major job-cutting proposals to workers, the FWC has endorsed Deakin University's timing but told it to engage at an institution-wide level after finding its 15-area carve-up left "no opportunity" for meaningful consultation.
Self-employed people and employers in Victoria who fail to notify WorkSafe about positive COVID-19 tests or confirmed coronavirus cases attending workplaces in the infectious period now face a fine of up to $39,652 for individuals and $198,264 for a body corporate.
Talks brokered by the FWC last night have led the parties to a COVID-19 dispute agreeing to "fully support" the findings from an industrial site visit by an occupational physician this morning.
An employer that made a worker redundant just days before the unveiling of JobKeeper must pay the remaining sum she would have gained as a recipient, after the FWC found a proper consultation process would have resulted in her getting it.
Despite lacking power to deal with a dispute over a casual worker's removal from JobKeeper for refusing an extra shift, the FWC has recommended his employer reinstate the payment or face a potential general protections claim.
Spotless has applied for orders stopping alleged industrial action at a Melbourne industrial laundry where workers have raised safety concerns after two of them returned positive COVID-19 tests.
Victoria's COVID-19 resurgence is causing upheaval across the state's workplaces, with high test results among health and aged care workers forcing the Federal and State governments to introduce emergency staffing measures.
