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 ACTU told its employees yesterday they should work from home due to the prospect of protest rallies by supporters of the CFMEU's construction and general division.
Unions will bargain for artificial intelligence "productivity clauses" to ensure workers are paid a "fair share" of additional wealth created by the technology rather than just generating "super profits" for employers, under a new ACTU policy.
Legislation introduced recently to Queensland's Parliament imposes a positive duty that goes beyond the Respect@Work model, adds new protected attributes to the Anti-Discrimination Act and improves protections for workers assaulted on the job, but the State union peak body is disappointed it continues to permit religious bodies to discriminate in employment.
In a decision an employer argues has "substantial" implications for most businesses, Fire & Rescue NSW has been ordered to pay a health and safety representative for time spent conducting unapproved inspections on his days off.
A worker's "unfortunate" comment to the FWC that "it is nearly impossible to injure someone when driving a forklift at 8km/h", demonstrating his "unsatisfactory understanding of workplace safety", has clinched a ruling that upheld his sacking, after he admitted to smoking marijuana the night before a collision.
A freeze has been imposed on big employers applying to self-insure under Comcare while the Albanese Government reviews the compensation scheme's legislative framework, 17 years after a former Labor IR minister imposed what turned into a six-year moratorium on new participants.
The NSW Parliament has passed legislation providing an industrial manslaughter offence punishable by jail terms of up to 25 years for individuals and fines for companies of up to $20 million - the largest in Australia - along with new laws extending the State's portable long service leave scheme.
FWC President Adam Hatcher has expressed concern about possible confusion arising from the inclusion in all awards of the new right to disconnect outside of working hours, when some awards "specifically contemplate" out-of-hours contact.
The AiG is calling for the FWC to reject the ACTU's "misguided and inappropriate" draft "right to disconnect" award clause, and AREEA is recommending the final clause mirror the legislation, rather than expand it.
