The FWC has lambasted an employer over the "unconscionable" sacking of a casual who said he was just joking about making a workers' compensation claim after a COVID-19 related standdown, ordering compensation equal to 24 weeks of JobKeeper.
Further evidence of the green shoots of a recovery has been provided with today's release of ABS data showing that private sector pay rates excluding bonuses increased by 0.7% seasonally adjusted and 0.5% in original terms in the December quarter.
The Morrison Government's contentious Omnibus IR Bill has moved to the Senate after a day of increasingly splenetic exchanges between Coalition and ALP members, one independent describing the legislation as a "pathetic" example of supposed compromise.
The "overwhelming majority" of employers should assume they have no power to force employees to vaccinate against COVID-19, IR Minister Christian Porter said today as his agencies issued new advice on workplace inoculations.
A casual cook has been cleared to contest her dismissal after the FWC found she was caught between the competing interests of two workplaces in responding to the Victorian Government's single employer directive at the height of that State's COVID-19 outbreak.
The Morrison Government's IR Omnibus Bill is likely to have a minimal, "probably negative" impact on Australia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a leading employment relations scholar has warned.
The FWC has given Santos, and AWU and the AMWU a recommended framework for consulting over pandemic-related proposals such as quarantining, suggesting they discuss current disputes concerning the gas giant's Cooper Basin workforce with a view to putting it into practice.
The FWC has rejected a long-serving worker's portrayal of herself as a "victim" of powerful HR forces, finding her displeasure at being asked to account for money raised for a deceased colleague's family led her into serious misconduct.
International Trade Union Confederation secretary and former ACTU president Sharan Burrow has told a parliamentary inquiry that the Omnibus IR Bill's casual employment provisions are likely to breach Australia's obligations under ILO conventions and recommendations, ahead of a hearing in Canberra on Friday.
The Morrison Government has agreed to drop proposed changes to Better Off Overall Test in the IR Omnibus Bill, which would have given the FWC a temporary power to approve substandard enterprise agreements for employers afflicted by the pandemic.
