A House of Representatives committee has begun an inquiry into the "operation and adequacy" of the National Employment Standards, after a referral from Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth.
New federal legislation will create a pathway for employers to pay historical debts related to unpaid portable long service leave levies, following two full Federal Court decisions that clarified the eligibility of employees in the black coal industry.
Industry super fund Cbus has been hit with a $23.5 million penalty for delaying payment of death benefits and total and permanent disability claims to thousands of members.
A four-member FWC full bench has formally put on hold a review of the right to disconnect provisions, due to a paucity of case law, but recent commentary by tribunal president Adam Hatcher and leading academic lawyer Andrew Stewart indicate the jury is still out on the reasons for the litigation deficit and the impacts of the reforms.
The FWC has backed an ASX-listed early education provider's decision to reject a worker's request for flexible arrangements to enable her to keep picking up her children from school each day, instead of moving to a less-accommodating rotating roster.
BHP's in-house labour hire company has been fined $15,000 and ordered to pay 85 production employees between $800 and $2400 each in compensation for unreasonably requiring them to work across Christmas holidays.
The Federal Government's long service leave scheme for the black coal industry has won special leave from the High Court to challenge a full Federal Court judgment that it says has significant implications for the LSL eligibility of shotfiring and explosive services workers.
The FWC's approach to assessing flexible work disputes is potentially undermining workers' rights to plan ahead, an academic has warned, after the tribunal held that a Sydney Water employee could not make such a request in the lead-up to his 55th birthday, and found a father ineligible until he finalised his custody arrangement.
A Coalition private senator's bill sold as tackling the retirement savings gender gap is a ruse that "will allow already very wealthy Australians to funnel even more of their wealth into their super", according to the Greens, while Labor damned it for "empower[ing] the generationally wealthy".
Employers will be required from July next year to make super contributions within seven calendar days of paying their workers' wages and salaries, after enabling legislation passed Parliament today.
