Just months after employers called on the Coalition to consider installing seven new FWC members, pointedly highlighting the number of ALP appointees, the Morrison Government has announced five new deputy presidents and a commissioner, many with strong links to the business sector.
The FWC will no longer be required to conduct four-yearly reviews of modern awards, while being given powers to approve enterprise agreements despite minor procedural or technical errors, under long-delayed legislation passed by the Federal Parliament last night.
The Fair Work Act should be changed to prohibit full-time, direct employees being replaced by "permanent casuals", according to a Coalition-dominated Federal parliamentary inquiry chaired by former Nationals' leader and ex-Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
Former ABC chair Justin Milne has revealed that the broadcaster's board received advice from a past FWC member before deciding to sack managing director Michelle Guthrie.
The Morrison Government has introduced legislation to crack down on "sharp corporate practices" such as phoenix companies and asset-shifting by employers that are seeking to avoid paying employee entitlements.
IR Minister Kelly O'Dwyer will investigate employer concerns that a Federal Court decision opens the way for casual employees to make back-pay claims for billions of dollars of annual leave.
Employer groups have stepped up pressure on the Morrison Government to prevent casual workers "double dipping" by claiming annual leave on top of 25% pay loading in the wake of a crucial decision by the Full Federal Court last month.
Fewer than one in five people who experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years made a formal report or complaint about it, according to a new national survey by the Human Rights Commission.
Employers and unions have stepped up their lobbying of key Senate crossbenchers as the Morrison Government seeks to revive support for legislation that would make it easier to deregister unions for regularly breaching workplace and civil laws.
