The FWC has moved to correct two perceived wrinkles in the award covering salaried IT professionals, engineers, scientists and gaming sector employees that have led to some being paid as little as $22 per hour and "excessive litigation" over its disputed coverage of unfair dismissal applicants.
A FWC member has expressed concern that a new model award clause preventing employers from directing workers to take unpaid leave during shutdowns will lead to more disputes over rejected annual leave requests.
In what it claims is its first litigation seeking to have a holding company found responsible for its subsidiaries' breaches, the FWO has initiated court action against ASX-listed Super Retail Group for self-reported underpayments of more than $1 million that led to an internal audit and backpayments exceeding $50 million that the watchdog says remain short of the mark.
The FWC has granted an extension for the Albanese Government, unions and employers involved in the aged care work value case to respond to 50 questions posed late last year, such as whether they agree with a provisional view not to realign rates in a way that would hand the sector's registered nurses a 35% pay increase and whether they should be moved into the aged care award.
Woolworths has told the Senate work and care inquiry that 37.4% of its casuals accepted offers to convert from casual to permanent, which chair Barbara Pocock says is much higher than the committee has otherwise heard.
The Albanese Government says it is not feasible to fund the FWC's interim increase for aged care workers before July next year and wants to hold back a third of the 15% boost until mid-2024, but an "incredulous" HSU says the sector expects the increase to apply immediately on approval.
The HSU and the ANMF say the Fair Work Act's new secure work and gender equality objectives will bolster and simplify their work value case on behalf of aged care workers, proposing that Federal Government submissions should address the changes.
The Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act has received Royal Assent, stamping out pay secrecy clauses in new employment contracts, paring back MSD requirements and making it harder for employers to terminate agreements during bargaining, while the ABCC has entered a transition period ahead of its abolition.
Then Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese's call for a 5.1% pay rise for the lowest-paid ahead of the May federal election confirmed Labor as the party for working Australians, offered a closing contrast between the Morrison Government and a better future under the ALP, according to Labor's post-poll review.