Employers faced with widening lockdowns and restrictions have called on the Morrison Government to reintroduce temporary IR flexibilities including directed stand-downs and reduced hours once Parliament resumes next month.
The ACTU's triennial Congress is set to endorse a suite of policies on working from home that extend to the "right to disconnect" from work, payment for all time worked and workers having choice and control over hours.
Employer groups have welcomed talks with the Morrison Government on the part they can play in advancing the vaccine rollout once Pfizer supplies improve, including workplace vaccinations, but they are still awaiting assurances on indemnity and liability.
In the wake of National Cabinet last night agreeing to make COVID-19 inoculations compulsory for residential aged worker, the ACTU says that what "really needs to be mandated is a vaccine team visiting every aged care home".
The FWC has upheld a Qube subsidiary's sacking of a truck driver who blamed a positive blood alcohol reading on sucking on three-quarters of a 10-pack of Anticol cough lozenges to counter a dry throat.
After more than a decade of sub-4% growth in pay, Treasury has projected in its Intergenerational Report, released today, that it will return to that level in 2028 as productivity resumes its long-term growth path of 1.5%.
Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe has today added a new reason to his long list of why employers are not lifting wages - the "laser-like focus on costs" that has become the "predominant mindset" of many businesses.
ACTU leader Sally McManus has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison seeking four days paid leave and travel time to facilitate the rapid inoculation of the largely-unvaccinated private sector aged and disability care workforce.
Westpac has introduced special paid leave for employees to get COVID-19 vaccinations after the FSU wrote to financial institutions seeking two days' paid leave for all staff to get shots, while the Commonwealth Bank says it will also allow time off for the purpose.
