A $5 an hour "COVID-19 care allowance" for disability workers attending to self-isolated and quarantining clients is unnecessary and likely to trigger a push to insert it into other health sector and aged care awards, according to an FWC full bench.
The FWC has given any objectors a week to put their views on extending special coronavirus-driven flexibilities in 71 modern awards until the end of March, when the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ends.
An FWC full bench has quashed a decision to reduce a $12,000 retrenchment payout to zero, ruling that the Fair Work Act's "incapacity to pay" provisions don't apply when the entitlement arises from a source such as an award.
A long-serving pilot thought to have spent more than $13,500 contesting his redundancy has been awarded compensation of one week's pay, after the FWC held it was not genuine due to a lack of consultation.
The FWC has taken the initiative of releasing a draft award schedule addressing working-from-home arrangements, describing it as conversation-starter that recognises the need to adapt to COVID-19 realities.
A federal court judge has in fining an underpaying juice shop operator almost $35,000 flatly rejected "cultur[al] differences" as a mitigating factor, lamenting instead the frequency with which ethnically diverse employers exploit their own communities.
An FWC full bench has baulked at extending paid pandemic leave to award-covered disability services and ambulance workers, saying there was insufficient evidence of a "threat to the resilience" of care in those sectors.
An FWC full bench has today rejected a "misconceived' bid by construction employers to "level the playing field" by extending JobKeeper award flexibilities to ineligible companies in the sector, but has left the door open for changes due to the new Level 4 restrictions implemented in response to Victoria's second coronavirus wave.
An FWC full bench is inviting submissions by 2pm on an award variation allowing the real estate industry to disregard the COVID-19 months for commission-only employees and place a moratorium on commencing such arrangements.
