The SDA has applied to stave off next month's scheduled cut to retail workers' Sunday penalty rates to avoid a double whammy after the FWC minimum wage panel decided not to lift their pay until next year.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus will tonight use a "robo-call" to about 500,000 lower and middle-income households to explain the union movement's aims heading into the first of the Morrison Government's IR change discussions tomorrow.
The employer application to vary key construction awards will be heard by an FWC full bench on July 8 and 9, in the face of strong opposition from building unions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison's plan for a dialogue with unions and employers over changes to workplace laws has sparked a scramble among stakeholders to get a seat at the table.
Thirteen major law firms have dropped their application for temporary changes to the Legal Services Award in response to the coronavirus, a month after the ASU demanded they prove the changes were necessary.
More than 200,000 award-covered fast food industry workers face temporary cuts to part-time hours and reduced overtime penalties under fiercely-contested, pandemic-related changes approved by an FWC full bench.
An FWC full bench has asked the Morrison Government whether it will boost funding to compensate employers if it grants a contested $5-an-hour COVID-19 allowance claim for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients.
RAFFWU is moving quickly to object to expedited employer-proposed, ACTU-supported COVID-19 variations to the Fast Food Award, applying to businesses not qualifying for the JobKeeper scheme and workers who fall through the cracks.
The FWC will consider an ACTU push for frontline health workers to have access to paid leave on multiple occasions if they are required to self-isolate due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described his government's close consultation with the Opposition in drafting legislation to give effect to the JobKeeper coronavirus wage subsidy program that will be put to Parliament next week, while joining IR Minister Christian Porter in thanking unions for their cooperation in achieving "massive" temporary IR changes.