The FWC has released a report on its plain English transformation of the pharmacy award and issued guidelines for plain English drafting, before it gives similar treatment to the clerks, retail, hospitality and restaurant awards.
The Fair Work Commission will engage an external "plain language expert" to redraft the Pharmacy Award before it is user-tested in a pilot as part of the tribunal's four-yearly review of modern awards.
Awards should be limited to one per industry, with the FWC establishing a "new definition for unsociable hours" for each of them and determining "economy-wide" penalty rates, Business Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott has told a Sydney University gathering.
The employer push for lower penalty rates in the Fair Work Commission includes expert evidence that most weekend workers have no problem or only minor problems with performing their duties on Saturdays and Sundays.
A FWC full bench has today acceded to employer requests to change annual leave provisions in modern awards to enable cashing-out of up to two weeks a year and give employers a qualified power to require employees to take "excessive" accruals.
The Department of Employment has crunched the numbers on Australia's 122 modern awards, finding that just half provide for weekend penalty loadings, and 26 rule them out.
