The Victorian government has this afternoon unveiled "heartbreaking" closures and restrictions on workplaces requiring the stand down of another 250,000 of the State's workers.
About 240 Woolworths warehouse workers have stopped work at a Melbourne distribution centre over safety concerns after a positive COVID-19 case on Friday night.
The ACTU has thrown its support behind a push for a COVID-19 "vulnerable worker" payment where at-risk employees could voluntarily stay at home and continue to be paid in full.
In what represents a breach of some of the strictest workplace biosecurity controls in the country, a $315 million apartment project in Melbourne's CBD has been shut for a "hospital grade" clean after 12 coronavirus cases were confirmed among construction workers.
In an instructive decision on when employers should communicate major job-cutting proposals to workers, the FWC has endorsed Deakin University's timing but told it to engage at an institution-wide level after finding its 15-area carve-up left "no opportunity" for meaningful consultation.
Self-employed people and employers in Victoria who fail to notify WorkSafe about positive COVID-19 tests or confirmed coronavirus cases attending workplaces in the infectious period now face a fine of up to $39,652 for individuals and $198,264 for a body corporate.
Talks brokered by the FWC last night have led the parties to a COVID-19 dispute agreeing to "fully support" the findings from an industrial site visit by an occupational physician this morning.
An employer that made a worker redundant just days before the unveiling of JobKeeper must pay the remaining sum she would have gained as a recipient, after the FWC found a proper consultation process would have resulted in her getting it.
Despite lacking power to deal with a dispute over a casual worker's removal from JobKeeper for refusing an extra shift, the FWC has recommended his employer reinstate the payment or face a potential general protections claim.
