Awards and Employee Entitlements

After much debate in the Senate, the Federal Government’s Fair Work Amendment (Supporting Australia’s Jobs and Economic Recovery) Bill 2020 (‘the Bill’) passed through Parliament in a significantly reduced form on 18 March 2021. While the Federal Government’s more broader reforms were rejected, the casual employment provisions survived. The Bill was assented to on 26 […]

In this Employment Update we consider recent significant decisions affecting casual employment, the impact of COVID-19, and the named focus areas for IR Reform in Australia. Risks Associated with Casual Employment Last year the Full Federal Court decision of WorkPac Pty Ltd v Rossato (“Rossato decision”) caused panic amongst employers of casual employees, with the […]

The Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission in June 2020 made a decision to increase the National Minimum Wage by 1.75%, and for the same increase to be applied to the minimum rates in each Modern Award.   The increase to Award wages were split into three groups with different operative dates: Group 1 – 1 […]

The FWC’s 4-yearly review of Modern Awards has been lengthy and comprehensive requiring awards to be split into various groups (tranches).  Generally, most of the Tranche 1, 2 and 3 awards came into operation on various dates between 4 February and 26 December 2020.  A complete list of operative dates for Modern Awards already finalised […]

The JobKeeper scheme commenced on 30 March 2020 and has been extended until 28 March 2021. The scheme was extended in September by two extension periods for eligible entities meeting the relevant reduction in turnover requirement. The required decline in turnover percentage to satisfy the turnover requirement is: 30% if your turnover is $1 billion […]

The Fair Work Commission (‘the Commission’) as part of its 4-yearly review of modern awards has clarified “overtime for casuals” in 97 awards.  The need for clarification was initiated by a Statement issued by the Full Bench (as then constituted) on 4 December 2017.  This Statement included a table identifying modern awards which were considered […]

JobMaker Hiring Credit As part of the Federal Government’s $74 billion JobMaker Plan announced in the 2020-21 Federal Budget, $4 billion has been allocated to what is called ‘JobMaker Hiring Credit’.  This is aimed at providing businesses with an incentive to take on employees aged between 16 and 35 years old. The JobMaker Hiring Credit […]