The FWC's expert panel has this morning approved a 3.75% increase in all award rates and the national minimum wage, but has rebuffed the ACTU's bid for an immediate additional 4% for workers in highly-feminised industries, instead committing to a timetable to address the issue over the next 12 months.
The FWC is inviting submissions by June 11 on a "right to disconnect" audit of all 155 modern awards focusing on terms involving spans of hours, notice, supervisory duties, and requirements to remain on call, on standby or return to duty.
The Federal Government has made a "technical assumption" that there will be a minimum wage increase of 3.5% this year, the FWC's expert panel heard yesterday, while Commission President Adam Hatcher lamented the "Catch-22" situation the Commission faces in weighing whether Canberra will fund any gender-based increases.
The ANMF is urging the FWC to use "right to disconnect" award variations make it harder for employers to cut costs by relying on "threadbare" staffing and refusing to roster enough workers on-call, while the NTEU wants casual academics paid to respond to students outside their working hours.
Unions are asking the FWC to reject the Albanese Government's proposed phase-in schedule for Stage 3 work value pay rises of up to 13.5% in aged care, but employers say they are "commercially compelled" to support it to protect the sector's viability.
The FWC has transferred workers from BHP's in-house labour hire arm to direct employment with the new owners of a former BHP Coal mine, finding it "consistent" with the intent of the Fair Work Act's new "same-job, same-pay" protections.
A leading IR lawyer involved in a claim for an "exemption rate" in the Clerks Award says almost all employers of salaried staff, across industries, are breaching record-keeping requirements.
Employers have succeeded in varying an award clause a FWC full bench agrees could produce the "absurd" result of workers receiving five times the prescribed minimum rates.
The FWC has observed that an employer "is not a charity", in rejecting a claim from a former risk manager for an insolvent cryptocurrency trader that his award-covered role did not change despite successive $50,000 promotions over just 15 months.
A FWC full bench has made a provisional ruling in favour of ensuring the lowest pay classification in modern awards is used only for a short period of induction and training, making the second lowest rate the benchmark for continuing employment.
