The FWC has lambasted an employer over the "unconscionable" sacking of a casual who said he was just joking about making a workers' compensation claim after a COVID-19 related standdown, ordering compensation equal to 24 weeks of JobKeeper.
A casual cook has been cleared to contest her dismissal after the FWC found she was caught between the competing interests of two workplaces in responding to the Victorian Government's single employer directive at the height of that State's COVID-19 outbreak.
The Opposition and unions have today sought to turn the spotlight onto the IR Omnibus Bill's changes to casual employment and enterprise bargaining, following the Morrison Government's decision to drop controversial changes to the Better Off Overall Test.
The FWC has reinforced the importance of following safety guidelines to the letter in upholding the dismissal of a scaffolder whose sore hands proved to be the result of hepatitis rather than a head "bang" he took more than a week to report.
International Trade Union Confederation secretary and former ACTU president Sharan Burrow has told a parliamentary inquiry that the Omnibus IR Bill's casual employment provisions are likely to breach Australia's obligations under ILO conventions and recommendations, ahead of a hearing in Canberra on Friday.
In what the CFMMEU is hailing as another win in a similar vein to the landmark Skene and Rossato rulings, the Federal Court has overruled the Attorney-General's Department's "parsimonious" refusal to include a 25% casual loading in a mineworker's FEG payout.
McDonald's, the sole corporation to make a submission to the Omnibus Bill inquiry, is calling for substantial amendments to casual conversion provisions and the BOOT, indicating the legislation's changes to the latter are insufficient to renew its interest in enterprise bargaining.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation says the Morrison Government's Omnibus IR Bill is "sadly lacking" on a range of key measures, including proposed changes to casual employment and the Better Off Overall Test.
Ahead of its appearance today before the Senate inquiry into the Omnibus IR Bill, the Centre for Future Work has warned that as Australia experiences an unprecedented period of low pay growth, the legislation's changes "will exert additional downward pressure".
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is set to promise to legislate job security as a key objective of the Fair Work Act, along with empowering the FWC to set minimum standards for gig workers.
