A FWC member has refused to be drawn into a dispute between a private rail freight operator and the RTBU over whether a remote locality allowance should be calculated on travel by road or "as the crow flies", concluding that she could not disentangle conflicting versions about its inclusion in an agreement.
WA's Cook Labor Government has introduced legislation to lift casual loading from 20% to 25%, give some workers an enforceable right to request flexibility, and empower the IRC to discipline industrial agents, but it continues to lag on portable LSL.
Amazon will require its corporate employees across the globe, including in Australia, to return to the office five days a week from early next year to strengthen the company's culture, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
A parliamentary inquiry has recommended the Albanese Government consider amending the Fair Work Act's right to request flexible work to ensure menopausal women can access it, while it also wants reproductive leave added to the NES and awards.
The Health Services Union has won 12 days paid reproductive leave in a deal for about 1600 disability service workers, in a "watershed" development it says could be expanded nationwide, as it bargains to entrench the entitlement in five further agreements.
South Australia's Malinauskas Government is likely to soon secure passage of legislation establishing a portable long service leave scheme for the community services sector, with potential to build on it to include other sectors in future.
A full Federal Court has overturned a ruling that Sydney Trains unlawfully discriminated against a trainee driver it sacked for failing to disclose that she had ADHD and autism, finding a judge relied on a "number of interrelated assumptions" unsupported by evidence.
The FWC has extended time for a worker's one-day-late unfair dismissal claim, finding his employer's "misleading" letter confirming his sacking resulted in his representative miscalculating the deadline.
The FWC's bid to develop an award clause removing impediments to working from home looks to be a slow burn, with a hearing likely next June following a possible employee survey.
The FWC has granted separate extensions of time to two workers challenging their dismissals, after attaching significant weight to the deaths of close family members.
