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310 articles are classified in All Articles > 2020 coronavirus pandemic > Policy



Law student's challenge to COVID-19 sacking binned

The FWC has thrown out an unfair dismissal case brought by a law student sacked from a full-time job as a legal assistant for failing to get a COVID-19 jab, finding she did not complete the required minimum employment term after taking time off to sit exams.

Tribunal rejects challenge to BHP vax mandate

Mining unions have failed to convince a senior FWC member that BHP's vaccination mandate breaches the Privacy Act and that it would be reasonable to let workers confirm their inoculation status via the same check-in method they use to enter a pub.


Fork off: Backdown on under-age driver plan

National Cabinet has today decided against reducing isolation periods for coronavirus-positive workers from seven days to five, while it has also abandoned plans to allow under-18s to drive forklifts, as governments continue to discuss ways to ameliorate worker shortages in the supply chain.

FWC hits pause on public transport vax mandate

The FWC has "reluctantly" applied the brakes to the NSW Government's COVID-19 vaccination mandate for some rail workers after finding it has an obligation to consider two unions' post-implementation challenges to the policy.

Unions threaten walk-offs due to Omicron workforce "emergency"

Unions are threatening to walk off jobs that risk the safety of essential workers, after what they claim is the Morrison Government's refusal to cooperate on the workplace response to the Omicron strain of COVID-19 and amid a continuing dire shortage of one of the "basic" frontline tools - Rapid Antigen Tests.

Changes free-up close virus contacts for critical work: PM

Workers across a range of critical industries will be permitted to attend work despite being close contacts of a COVID-19 case, once they receive a negative rapid antigen test result, following a national cabinet decision today, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

No silver lining for unvaxxed worker

The FWC has declined to extend time for an unvaccinated worker who claimed he lodged his claim late because of the theft of 45 one-kilogram silver bars from his home, while it has upheld a nursing home's sacking of a maintenance manager who failed to comply with a State Government inoculation mandate.

FWC queries worker's potentially-fraudulent vax certificate

A senior FWC member has invited "relevant authorities" to investigate a potentially fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination certificate supplied to an employer by a worker claiming to have been unlawfully stood down.