Employers have succeeded in winning a short delay to the introduction of a minimum wage guarantee in the horticulture award after a FWC bench accepted they needed time to revise their payroll systems and recruitment practices.
Menulog appears to have suffered a self-inflicted wound in its quest to establish a gig economy beachhead within the existing IR framework, the FWC finding its workers fall under an award that pays more than the one it currently relies upon.
A FWC full bench considering whether to make the country's first gig economy award has been told that "the world's moved on" for food delivery workers since the creation 12 years ago of two instruments held by unions and employers to already cover the occupation.
In a sign of the continuing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19's impact on workplaces, the FWC will consider extending millions of award-covered employees' entitlement to two weeks unpaid "pandemic leave" to the end of June next year.
Just 20% of employers have told an FWC survey they offer paid family and domestic violence leave, while Monash University says "victim-survivor" research shows a minimum 14-days' paid leave is needed alongside "culturally-safe and trauma-informed" workplaces.
The ACTU's bid for 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave has been bolstered by new FWC-commissioned research indicating that a third of recent agreements have a paid entitlement and half of those deals provide at least the quantum the peak body is seeking.
A FWC full bench's insertion of a minimum wage guarantee in the horticulture award to ensure pieceworkers earn at least $25.41 an hour is "one of the most significant industrial decisions of modern times", according to the AWU.
A FWC full bench has held early childhood teachers should receive a pay rise of up to 13.6% from the start of next year as part of an IEU work value claim, after the union reached a consent position with some employers and others failed to back up affordability concerns.
The FWC has introduced two new forms aimed at smoothing the processes around casual conversion disputes and addressing agreement anomalies arising from new casual employee definitions.
