Australia Post and the CEPU have signed a one-year agreement extension that aims to protect job security and take-home pay as the utility switches to a new delivery model amid the strains of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.
An employer that "overplayed its hand" when it issued a JobKeeper-enabling stand-down direction cutting a full-time worker's hours by 50% has been ordered by the FWC to pare back the reduction to 20%.
The SDA has failed to head off a double whammy for retail workers whose Sunday penalty rates fall this week despite a delay to minimum wage increases, after an FWC full bench found there was no presumption they should be aligned.
Some retail and pharmacy workers will be more than $4,000 worse off per year when the latest reduction in penalty rates takes effect today, according to new analysis by the Parliamentary Library.
The FWC will tomorrow bring down its much-anticipated decision in this year's minimum wage review, with employers calling for a pay freeze due to the pandemic's impact on business and unions arguing for a 4% rise to stimulate the economy.
The MUA has vowed to resist what it claims are "common" efforts by stevedoring companies to use the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to slash wages and conditions on the waterfront.
The FWC has let a construction company bin a 5% pay rise that came into effect in February plus next year's increase, despite CFMMEU evidence that some workers felt pressured to support the COVID-19 variation in a ballot that identified their vote.
The University of Melbourne says it will "move towards inevitable workforce reductions" after staff rejected a COVID-19 variation proposal to permanently remove their latest pay rise and introduce a new voluntary redundancy package.
Federal Treasury has told the FWC's minimum wage panel to be cautious in accepting predictions of a "very strong snapback" in the unemployment rate, as the economy re-opens after the coronavirus pandemic.