The Albanese Government's first major tranche of IR legislation beefs-up workers' rights to secure flexible working arrangements and empowers the FWC to arbitrate if conciliation of a refused request fails.
The Senate Work and Care inquiry's Labor and Greens majority is urging the Albanese Government to move swiftly to consider a right to disconnect, make flexibility requests an enforceable right and provide "roster justice" by ensuring workers with variable hours have predictability and certainty, in a 152-page interim report tabled this afternoon.
The ANMF has told the Senate work and care inquiry that ordinary full-time hours should be reduced from 38 hours to 32 to enable workers to achieve a better balance of work and caring responsibilities.
A leading gender and IR expert says Australian policymakers should "pay attention" to a UK parliamentary inquiry's recommendation that the Johnson Government make menopause a protected characteristic under anti-discrimination laws and that employers implement more menopause-friendly policies.
In a report warning of the "Uber-isation" of care, think tank Per Capita and a company using employees to provide disability services via an online platform are calling for a review of the implications of digital contracting in the sector.
Many workers would forgo a pay rise of up to 10% to secure more say in where and when they work, according to a study that says the Fair Work Act is failing to keep up with flexible practices, while other research says WFH employees save an average of $10,000 a year.
Women are half as likely as men to engage in digital platform work and earn between 10% and 37% less when they do so, according to a Victorian Government-commissioned report that will inform State-based standards for the gig economy.
People managers in organisations making this year's Workplace Gender Equality Agency employer of choice list have for the first time had to train-up on flexible working arrangements and how to deal with resistance to gender equality objectives.
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government will later this week remove its longstanding COVID-19 public health recommendation to work from home if possible, after a big drop in virus-related hospitalisations and a substantial rise in vaccination third-doses.
The "no enhancements" clause in the Federal public sector's bargaining policy could stymie the adoption of WFH provisions in Australian Public Service enterprise agreements, according to the CPSU's national secretary.