The NT is planning to impose a positive duty on employers to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, while it also intends to expunge an exemption that permits religious schools to discriminate against LGBTIQ+ teachers.
A proposal by Queensland's Palaszczuk Labor Government to remove gendered language from parental leave entitlements is the beginning of the end of "women" as a protected class at law and risks making mothers invisible, according to submissions on its IR Bill.
Food delivery platforms say "inappropriate" independent courier provisions in a Queensland IR Bill will fail gig workers, undermine the Federal Albanese Government's plans to boost protections and create a state versus national approach if passed into legislation.
A full Federal Court has extended the recent run of legal setbacks for casual workers, overturning a ruling that a mineworker should be paid a 25% loading on Fair Entitlements Guarantee payments after the labour hire company he worked for entered administration.
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government has today announced it is implementing recommendations from its workplace sexual harassment taskforce, including restricting the use of non-disclosure agreements.
The Albanese Government has the opportunity to take "bold and decisive action" to make workplaces safe and harassment-free, according to Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC.
IR Minister Tony Burke has outlined some of the entitlements he would like the FWC to include in the minimum conditions it prescribes for gig workers, while emphasising that it will be up to the tribunal to decide what's in and what's out, but a leading IR academic who developed a state labor government's blueprint for labour hire regulation says the new Government's approach will provide "a limited solution".
In a wide-ranging IR Bill, Queensland's Palaszczuk Labor Government is taking a national lead in empowering the State IRC to arbitrate s-xual harassment cases and set minimum standards for gig delivery workers, while seeking also to rein in unregistered unions.
The Perrottet Government in NSW says it is moving to massively increase fines for unlawful industrial action to send a "message" ahead of a teachers' strike, while a commissioner who blocked part of a PSA strike says it refused to meaningfully engage with the union on wages.
A finding that the FWC cannot keep dealing with disputes brought under old agreements once a new deal comes into effect has produced "arbitrary, anomalous and nonsensical outcomes" and is wrong, a full bench has held, calling for an amendment to the Fair Work Act to reflect the new precedent.
