A university's decision to slash casual tutors' rates for online student support almost four years into an agreement has been endorsed by the FWC, despite the member observing that the deal's definition of tutorial harked back to his long-gone days at law school.
The CFMMEU says the Federal Court has made an "outrageous decision" in directing that $1m held in a trust fund as a result of a case brought by the union now be shared by all former employees of the liquidated labour hire company One Key Workforce Pty Ltd.
Employers have decried as "unfixing a problem" a Labor attempt to disallow new casual loading offset regulations, Shadow IR Minister Brendan O'Connor countering that the rules are just the Government's way of shifting responsibility.
Maritime unions have failed to convince the FWC terminating two nominally-expired agreements that, in one case, had covered no workers since 2013 would sabotage the timetables of new dredging projects.
The Coalition government intends to use a new Fair Work regulation to shield employers from "double dipping" where long-term casual employees are deemed to be eligible for leave entitlements.
The Fair Work Act should be changed to prohibit full-time, direct employees being replaced by "permanent casuals", according to a Coalition-dominated Federal parliamentary inquiry chaired by former Nationals' leader and ex-Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
The ACTU has released a new paper which argues that most casual workers get nowhere near the 25% loading due to them, instead receiving a "modest wage premium" of 4% to 5% more than permanent employees.
The Australian Industry Group is warning employers not to rush in to making agreement undertakings incorporating a recent key decision on casual leave until the Federal Court determines a challenge to the ruling's ambit.
Class action law firm Adero is lining up with the CFMMEU and the worker at the centre of a key casual leave ruling to intervene in Workpac's bid to block another casual from winning entitlements, arguing it is an abuse of process and that the issue could be better dealt with via a class action.
