The Law Reform Commission has recommended legal changes to substantially narrow the circumstances in which religious educational institutions can discriminate against their workers.
The Albanese Government has until tomorrow to table a long-awaited Australian Law Reform Commission report on tightening discrimination protections for teachers and other workers at religious schools, while the Prime Minister himself has flagged that the controversial legislation will go nowhere without bipartisan support.
The Senate has passed legislation to raise federally-funded paid parental leave to 26 weeks by 2026 after crossbench senators Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock secured $10 million to help small businesses administer the scheme.
The FWC has identified 11 award provisions, extending to overtime, reasonable additional hours and on-call, that might interact with new terms to entrench the right to disconnect, ahead of the new laws taking effect in late August.
A key Senate crossbench party, the Jacquie Lambie Network, has introduced legislation to enable the CFMEU's manufacturing division to proceed with its thwarted attempt to de-merge from the amalgamated union.
The FWC has published a combined timetable of key commencement dates for the now-assented Closing Loopholes 2 changes and its predecessor legislation, while DEWR is still working to update its suite of backgrounders to reflect the most recent amendments.
New provisions for intractable bargaining workplace determinations have taken effect after the Closing Loopholes No 2 Act yesterday received Royal Assent, while other key provisions, such as the right to disconnect and the new definition of casual employment, are set to begin in late August.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has revealed a NDIS health service, the Energizer battery giant and an investment and logistics company have the largest median total remuneration gender pay gaps, while construction topped the list on an industry basis, under new laws requiring the agency to annually report the performance of companies with 100-plus employees.
Closing Loopholes 2 provisions that substantially increase penalties for breaching the Fair Work Act should prompt employers to consider boosting their investment in payroll systems and checking compliance, Adelaide University Professor of Law Andrew Stewart says.