Interested parties have until June 16 to respond to a FWC bench's proposal to amend model award terms to highlight the two "alternative and parallel avenues" now available to resolve disputes over flexible work and unpaid parental leave requests.
Two proposed new UK laws aim to protect workers by making their time on the job more flexible and predictable, with one bill attempting to combat "one-sided flexibility" by providing the right to seek a reliable working pattern, and another making it easier to make flexible working requests.
A new set of flexible work principles for the Australian Public Service aspire to make all roles flexible - while continuing to meet organisational needs - and will provide the basis for unions and government to negotiate a common flexibility term for public sector agreements.
The Albanese Government's first major tranche of IR legislation beefs-up workers' rights to secure flexible working arrangements and empowers the FWC to arbitrate if conciliation of a refused request fails.
The Senate Work and Care inquiry's Labor and Greens majority is urging the Albanese Government to move swiftly to consider a right to disconnect, make flexibility requests an enforceable right and provide "roster justice" by ensuring workers with variable hours have predictability and certainty, in a 152-page interim report tabled this afternoon.
The ANMF has told the Senate work and care inquiry that ordinary full-time hours should be reduced from 38 hours to 32 to enable workers to achieve a better balance of work and caring responsibilities.
A leading gender and IR expert says Australian policymakers should "pay attention" to a UK parliamentary inquiry's recommendation that the Johnson Government make menopause a protected characteristic under anti-discrimination laws and that employers implement more menopause-friendly policies.
The CBA is rolling out new contracts for staff on legacy individual flexibility arrangements and admitting ahead of a Federal Court hearing that the IFAs breached the Fair Work Act, but the FSU says it must get the process right for those wanting to revert to the agreement.
The FWC has observed that a Victorian worker's application to work full-time from home under flexible work arrangements was largely motivated by her opposition to COVID-19 vaccinations, in upholding her employer's refusal of her request.
The "no enhancements" clause in the Federal public sector's bargaining policy could stymie the adoption of WFH provisions in Australian Public Service enterprise agreements, according to the CPSU's national secretary.
