A leading silk has recalled how one of the FWC's newest members "effortlessly" combined death metal jeans and flannelette shirts during his days as a long-haired chemical engineering student, before being drawn by the siren song of a career in law.
An official welcome for a new FWC member has heard how he once led a court case revolving around chicken schnitzels that ended with orders to pay more than $70,000 to the family company of a future IR minister.
Former IR Minister Michaelia Cash's final employer-side appointment to the FWC has told how his mother still chafes at the Commission's determination in a matter where she appeared as an employee witness.
The Albanese Government has appointed former Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James as the secretary of the new Department of Employment and Workplace Relations that opens its doors next week.
The leader of the ANMF's West Australian branch, Mark Olson, is stepping down after 24 years in the job and an often mercurial approach, which included taking the view that unions should not "shy away" from the Abbott Government's Heydon royal commission into trade unions.
A score of former union officials and activists moved into Parliament 15 years ago when the Rudd Labor Government took power at the "Work Choices" poll, but this time is different, with only a few winning, or a chance of winning, seats in Saturday's election victory for the party.
An IR manager who recently gave evidence in his company's FWC bid for a s418 anti-industrial-action order will now be sitting on the Commission's bench, after Attorney-General and IR Minister Michaelia Cash made a last-minute appointment ahead of the election anticipated next month.
Attorney General and IR Minister Michaelia Cash has today appointed a senior Sydney IR and employment silk as a Federal Court judge, while she has refused to confirm whether she intends to make any FWC appointments ahead of the Government going into caretaker mode.
With a federal election likely in May, IR Minister Michaelia Cash has thumbed her nose at Labor's plan to axe the Registered Organisations Commission, giving Mark Bielecki another two years as its leader.
