Prime Minister Scott Morrison's plan for a dialogue with unions and employers over changes to workplace laws has sparked a scramble among stakeholders to get a seat at the table.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison's headland speech on a new approach to IR change extended an olive branch to unions by dropping the "ensuring integrity' legislation, but also raised the prospect of further measures to crack down on unlawful behaviour on construction sites.
The ACTU will head into the Morrison Government's JobMaker policy discussions with the aim of reducing insecure employment and extending paid pandemic leave.
Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter will chair five working groups with the aim of producing a "practical reform" of the IR system to help grow jobs as the economy emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The FWC has asked the Federal Government for extra resources to deal with a coronavirus-driven "surge" in unfair dismissal claims, according to the tribunal's president, who also expects the pandemic will bring about a permanent change in the organisation's operations, with many members and staff to continue working from home.
A leading labour market economist has rebutted resource employers' demands for greater labour flexibility, saying the adaptability of the current system is underlined by the way it responded to the mining boom and the subsequent crash.
Employers will soon have access to a "complete toolkit" to achieve "COVIDsafe" workplaces when their businesses "reanimate" after the coronavirus hibernation, the Federal Government promised this afternoon, while the chief medical officer addressed the question of whether the coronavirus means the end of hotdesking.
As some employers suggest that FWC's minimum wage panel might need to freeze or cut minimum pay due to the coronavirus crisis, the UK has lifted its wage floor to 60% of the median.
The Morrison Government's second COVID-19 economic response package contained $30 billion-plus in cashflow support that amounted to a separate wage subsidy to JobKeeper, according to Treasury, which also revealed today that more than half a million employers have enrolled in JobKeeper.