The FWC has cleared the way for a project manager to pursue his unfair dismissal claim after finding his retention payments do not push him above the high-income threshold as they are not "earnings".
The SDA has shot back at the ARA's claim that the FWC would be "abdicating" its duty if it delays a bid to reform penalty rates in the retail award ahead of mooted legislation, citing the Fair Work Act's commitment to upholding a stable system as reason to defer the matter.
Shelving a major retail award conditions buy-out bid while the Albanese Government pursues penalty rate reforms would be a dereliction of duty, the Australian Retailers Association has told the FWC.
As plans for a national portable entitlements scheme remain in limbo, the NT's Finocchiaro Government has repealed legislation that would have extended portable long service leave to the community services sector, arguing that it would result in increased fees for parents using childcare and would be too costly for the Government.
In a genuine redundancy ruling, the FWC has confirmed that it simply needs to consider whether employers have notified a retrenchment in writing, rather than whether they have provided notice in "the most optimum manner".
Drawing on limited legislative guidance and case law on instalment payments, the FWC has ordered an employer to split a $30,000 compensation payment over two months rather than the 12 it sought, finding the worker entitled to the "fruits" of his claim "in a timely manner".
A prime mover in the campaign to secure paid reproductive leave is now pushing for HECS indexation to pause while primary caregivers are on parental leave, to avoid the cost of time off work disproportionately falling on women.
A full Federal Court has cast doubt over a $40 million underpayments case after ruling that a FWC presidential member and a bench led by president Adam Hatcher failed to properly consider an employer's arguments about the improbability of penalty rates not already being wrapped up in loaded rates paid under two agreements.
Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth's plan to legislate "as soon as possible" to protect award-enshrined penalty rates has prompted the FWC to seek submissions on whether to shelve a major employer bid to insert a conditions buy-out clause in the retail award for workers on as little as $53,680 a year.
The SDA is challenging what it says is the FWC's failure to immediately terminate a long-expired substandard agreement, arguing that it did not properly consider the unfairness to workers when it allowed the deal to continue to operate for a further three months.