A HR manager facing potential criminal charges has before a FWC bench refused to answer nearly 100 questions seeking to establish whether he lied on the application form for a contentious agreement that provides for employees to work "voluntary" additional hours without penalty rates.
In the final hearing before the Senate inquiry into the Secure Jobs Bill releases its report today, key ACT Independent senator David Pocock this morning sought more clarity on how interest-based bargaining will work and probed a finding that the government's impact analysis is merely "adequate".
In a significant decision on the nature of work, the FWC has found that the nursing home at the centre of one of Queensland's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks should have paid employees for the time spent taking rapid antigen tests before the start of their shifts.
Adelaide University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart has told a Senate hearing that the Albanese Government should withdraw and rework a contentious aspect of its Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill, suggesting there is a "problem with the legislation" if as a technical expert he is unable to answer a simple question about coverage in the single interest bargaining provisions.
A senior FWC member has described a public transport agency's vaccination policy as "pressur[ing]" workers to "give up [the] fundamental right" to bodily integrity, before ordering it to pay five train drivers sidelined because of their non-compliance.
RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan says the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill is an "Orwellian attack" worse than Work Choices that will reduce workers' ability to strike, tear the BOOT apart and diminish the voice of employees and employers while doing nothing for casuals or wages.
Victorian courts have vowed to tackle the "open secret" of s-xual harassment, endorsing recommendations that include actively identifying judicial officers known or suspected of such behaviour and "taking steps" to protect vulnerable staff from them.
The FWC has tossed out an unfair dismissal claim from a government lawyer responsible for overseeing safe workplaces, finding he fully understood the seriousness of "wilfully and persistently" refusing to confirm his COVID-19 vaccination status.
The Albanese Government has confirmed its Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill to be into introduced into Parliament next Thursday will include measures to close the gender pay gap, but IR academic Shae McCrystal says any legislation must also provide a right to strike or compulsory arbitration for workers engaging in multi-employer bargaining.
Weeks after the CFMMEU's mining and energy division borrowed from the ABCC's playbook to argue for its demerger from the broader union, the latter has returned fire in similar terms, suggesting the division is hardly on the side of the angels itself.
