A senior FWC member has approved an employer's request for legal representation in a dismissal case, but not before requiring hearings be conducted in private, that he be free to provide "appropriate" guidance to the unrepresented former worker, and that he retain the power to revoke permission if the lawyer complicates proceedings.
A geoscientist made redundant after almost two decades with the same company has been given a second chance to argue he was unfairly dismissed after a full bench found his former employer potentially led a Commission member into error when asserting there were no alternative positions available.
Esso Australia is seeking to prevent the Fair Work Commission from making a workplace determination for its Bass Strait oil and gas operations, arguing its legal basis has been "fatally undermined" by a recent High Court ruling.
The FWC has rejected the ACTU's bid for a new entitlement for working parents and carers to work flexible hours, but has provisionally indicated it intends to publish a model award clause that will extend the right to request flexible work to casuals with six months service and require employers to provide more explanation for refusing requests.
In a move that underlines corporate Australia's flight from enterprise bargaining, Domino's Pizza Enterprises has withdrawn from its proposed workplace agreement and will now stick with the fast food award.
The South Australian branch of the AWU has refused to participate in a hearing into a major grain company's successful agreement termination bid, telling the FWC it has "no confidence" in a legal process for employer terminations that unfairly bolsters their bargaining position.
A review of the 2015 amendments to the Fair Work Act's greenfields agreements provisions has rejected union pleas to axe "last offer" arbitration - despite a failure by employers to utilise it - and has recommended reducing from six months to three the "negotiating period" before the FWC can break deadlocks.
In a decision where the employer's case was embarrassingly "scuttled" by its own witness, a senior FWC member has found that Ausgrid failed to inform four safety specialists during job interviews that they wouldn't be receiving an allowance due to them under the relevant agreement.
In a significant decision on multi-hiring arrangements, a court has ruled that an Australia Post employee holding two "separate and distinct" part-time positions could not base overtime and other entitlements on combined hours.
