The FWC has extended COVID-19 flexibility clauses in 74 modern awards until the end of March, while employers are proposing to follow the same path for the clerical award in the face of union opposition.
Qantas is considering a challenge to a Federal Court interpretation today of JobKeeper payment rules that will require it to backpay employees who received penalty rates in arrears while covered by the wage subsidy scheme.
The CFMMEU's MUA division has failed to convince a senior FWC member that it is unreasonable to refuse entry to an offshore vessel to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission and to instead require it to use a landside meeting room.
A majority of employer organisations have heatedly rejected a joint position agreed between the Business Council of Australia and the ACTU over changes to the law covering agreement-making, while IR Minister Christian Porter says discussions are continuing and that differences of opinion should come as no surprise.
A $5 an hour "COVID-19 care allowance" for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients is unnecessary and likely to trigger a push to insert it into other health sector and aged care awards, according to an FWC full bench.
The FWC has given any objectors a week to put their views on extending special coronavirus-driven flexibilities in 71 modern awards until the end of March, when the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ends.
The Qantas timetable for an in-house bid for the airline's outsourced domestic ground handling services is "unattainable and unrealistic", according to a consultant engaged by the TWU.
The FWC has refused to express a view on whether an NRMA-owned cruise operator should be able to withhold JobKeeper payments for a fortnight in which it provided more than $1500 in back pay due under a newly-approved deal.
Qantas and the TWU will hold private talks on a contentious plan to outsource ground-handling work at the national carrier, before reporting back to the Fair Work Commission next week.
