A FWC bench has emphasised the tribunal's need to properly scrutinise proposed agreements in finding that a senior tribunal member failed to follow principles of open justice when refusing to provide a union with the names of applicants for a mining services deal ultimately found to be a sham.
The FWC has set aside 17 days from October 20 and November 25 for a full bench to hear a major SDA challenge to junior rates in the retail, fast food and pharmacy awards, while Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has responded to a call to weigh in.
Employers with significant casual workforces have been given a guided tour of new legislative filters for assessing whether proposed deals are genuinely agreed, in a FWC decision focussing on the Fair Work Act's "employed at the time" provision.
A government agency has been scolded for failing to pay travel allowances after admitting that it slipped its notice that the claims had been processed manually by two firefighters, one of whom retired while the other went on extended leave.
In a significant decision the ETU describes as "deeply troubling", the Federal Court has found full-time agreement-covered FIFO electricians working on a Fortescue mine project do not accrue paid leave during their monthly "rest and recreation" off-swing.
In a shot in the arm for a paramedic transferred 350km away after an investigator found he bullied a female colleague, a full bench has ruled that bullying falls within a "spectrum of seriousness" and ordered the redetermination of whether he engaged in serious misconduct.
The second-term Albanese Government has today delivered on a key election promise, asking the FWC's Annual Wage Review bench to grant an "economically sustainable" real increase in the minimum wage and award rates.
The FWC has made SJSP orders putting WorkPac and Skilled on-hire production operators at a Glencore coal mine in line for substantial pay rises despite accepting it might make labour supply contracts "wholly unviable" and result in job losses.
A full Federal Court majority has found that Orica is not obliged to make contributions to the black coal mining sector's portable long service leave scheme for its shotfirers, while Justice Adam Hatcher has demurred.
The FWC has "reluctantly" found that in focusing only on the positives an employer failed to adequately explain a newly consolidated deal opposed by one branch of the HSU but supported by its embattled Victorian No 1 branch.
