Victoria's Allan Government is supporting a Silver Review recommendation that public sector agencies ensure employees adhere to the expectation that they work a minimum of three days in the office, with most currently attending for only two days.
Unions have doubled down on objections to an Australian Industry Group draft working-from-home clause proposed for the clerks award, claiming it will create a two-tiered system, confound both employers and workers and violates new penalty rates protections.
Shadow IR minister Tim Wilson has made it clear that he is some way from releasing any Coalition IR policy, but has nevertheless indicated that it must address AI's looming "reset" to the way people work and underlined that he strongly favours WFH and workplace flexibility, after the disastrous pre-poll stance earlier this year.
A senior FWC member has identified a paid agent's apparent "lack of familiarity" with Commission processes as a reason for refusing a worker's request for representation to defend his dismissal for alleged time-theft.
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.
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.
As a leading employer-clientele lawyer hosed down fears about WFH "chaos" in the wake of the recent Chandler decision, the Greens have introduced legislation giving employees the right to work remotely for at least two days a week unless fulfilling their roles is "impractical or impossible".
The Australian Industry Group says that its clerks award WFH proposal is "far less drastic than the unions appear to suggest", in its newly-published response to ASU and ACTU concerns that it might conflict with the new penalty rates legislation and the NES.
A FWC member has revealed the untold story of what happened to the vast majority of the almost 300 disputes over flexible work requests the tribunal received in the last financial year, after only a handful went to arbitration, while she also spelt out her proven template for resolution.
