Unions are calling on Qantas to permit sick workers to continue accessing paid personal leave entitlements while stood down due to the coronavirus, despite the Federal Court ruling today that it is not obliged to do so.
The Morrison Government has won support for a parliamentary inquiry into class actions, despite the Labor Opposition accusing it of dodging recommendations from a 17-month-old report by the Australian Law Reform Commission.
The FWC will approve consent coronavirus-driven changes to the vehicle manufacturing, repair services and retail award if it doesn't receive any objections by late this afternoon, while it has endorsed a variation that delays half of a pay rise for six months at Ford Australia.
Employers intend to mount a "material" case in opposition to the union bid for health and community workers to receive paid leave if they are required to self-isolate during the coronavirus pandemic.
In what stands as a tribute to the qualities the FWC looks for in employers' legal representatives, an experienced tribunal member has praised a senior associate for "a masterclass in the art of advocacy" that avoided bamboozling or belittling an unrepresented bus driver.
A Federal Court judge has promised today to rule swiftly on whether Qantas employees stood down due to the coronavirus pandemic can access paid personal (sick) leave, carers' leave and compassionate leave.
The law firm behind a multi-million-dollar class action against labour hire provider One Key Resources and One Key Holdings says it will test the ability of vulnerable workers legislation to hold parent companies to account.
The ACTU's push for paid pandemic leave in the broader health sector could extend to almost 1.6 million workers in the wake of FWC proceedings seeking to include the entitlement in a variety of related awards.
The FWC, in contrasting redundancy decisions delivered on the same day, has agreed to slash the payment a small, pandemic-affected business must make to a worker, but has rejected another employer's bid to do the same for three of its former employees.
