The NSW Industrial Relations Commission has approved a "splinter award" to protect thousands of local government workers who are unable to perform their usual roles during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The FWC, in contrasting redundancy decisions delivered on the same day, has agreed to slash the payment a small, pandemic-affected business must make to a worker, but has rejected another employer's bid to do the same for three of its former employees.
An FWU conference convened this afternoon to consider granting paid pandemic leave to vulnerable workers heard that the ACTU has asked Comcare and state-based workcover schemes to declare COVID-19 an occupational disease within the health industry.
The ACTU says that a trading halt on Virgin Australia shares underlines the need for an urgent Federal Government package to support the aviation industry.
As legislation establishing the Morrison Government's $1500 JobKeeper wage subsidy passed through Parliament without amendments last night, aviation unions and the ACTU are on several fronts challenging how Qantas intends to apply it.
The JobKeeper legislation gives qualifying employers the ability to make "JobKeeper-enabling directions" to stand down workers and change their duties and location.
Baiada workers have voted to accept the same deal they rejected a month ago, after the FWC dismissed a union bid for bargaining orders to return the chicken giant to COVID-affected negotiations.
The JobKeeper legislation will amend the Fair Work Act to enable qualifying employers to lawfully change workers' hours, duties, days and location, while empowering the FWC to adjudicate disputes, IR Minister Christian Porter said today.
In the first significant pandemic-related dispute over mass lay-offs to come before the FWC, the Federal Court's transcription service provider has been criticised for making "hollow" consultation promises and reminded to treat workers "with dignity in this time of crisis".
