Australia can learn from the "disappointing" under-utilisation of Spain's groundbreaking menstrual leave entitlement during its first year, due to fear of discrimination at work and the limitations of its model, according to an employment lawyer.
CFMEU construction and general division national secretary Zach Smith has told members today he expects the FWC to seek to begin the process of appointing an administrator to "a number of branches" within days, but has not indicated whether the union will formally resist the move.
The SDA says it will be "going in to bat" for any permanent Woolworths employees wanting to switch to a four-day working week under a clause in the supermarket giant's new agreement, approved by a FWC full bench despite multiple RAFFWU and AMIEU objections that followed the latter's "misuse" of the company's in-house messaging platform.
In a significant decision on paid parental leave, a FWC presidential member has ordered a State-owned public transport provider to backpay a bus driver who claimed to be the primary carer of his newborn son while his wife recovered from an emergency caesarean section.
The federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association, Steve Purvinas, has dropped his court case against members of his executive after they shelved moves to curtail his role.
In a judgment that casts a harsh light on agreement drafting, a Federal Court majority has described crucial elements of a multinational paint company's since superseded deals as a "jumble of random terms", before quashing a finding that six misclassified warehouse workers had been underpaid.
The FAAA has extended the tentacles of its SJSP test case against Qantas labour suppliers, bringing an application against a third labour hire company, while the parallel test case against BHP Coal has been pushed back after unions sought extra time for their submissions.
The FWC is seeking feedback on a suite of resources, including video and animated explainers, about its new functions for regulated workers and businesses in the gig economy and road transport industries.
The FWC has warned employers against giving "generic and blanket HR answers" when they provide their "reasonable business grounds" for knocking back flexibility requests, before ultimately rejecting a bid from a worker with challenging caring responsibilities to continue working entirely from home.
The Federal Court has again intervened to turn down the heat in a continuing bargaining stoush between the CFMEU and the head contractor for Queensland's $7 billion Cross River Rail project, giving the union until Thursday to challenge orders imposing 15-metre no-go zones around sites and prohibiting the filming of workers crossing picket lines.
