A four-member FWC full bench has formally put on hold a review of the right to disconnect provisions, due to a paucity of case law, but recent commentary by tribunal president Adam Hatcher and leading labour law academic Andrew Stewart indicate the jury is still out on the reasons for the litigation deficit and the impacts of the reforms.
The FWC has ruled that Woodside's agreement does not prevent it sending offshore platform employees to work in Perth when a cyclone hits, but doubts remain about whether such a direction is lawful and reasonable.
On-hire workers at a Queensland coal mine who late last year won same-job, same-pay orders did not qualify for any portion of an annual bonus paid to the host's employees, the FWC has held, while separately finding the mine must pay the full incentive to its part-time direct employees, and those on unpaid leave or workers compensation.
The Federal Court has temporarily restrained a trustee from winding up a purported income protection fund that a FWC full bench found had paid the UFU a $1.6 million "secret commission".
The NSW Industrial Court has fined the state's nurses and midwives union $130,000 for its "flagrant and unapologetic" flouting of multiple anti-strike orders during pay negotiations with the Minns Government that have since morphed into a major gender undervaluation case.
Eighteen months after retail giant Aldi sought to insert a clause in a proposed agreement to render it immune to same-job, same-pay applications, it is facing a SJSP claim that the SDA says could lift on-hire warehouse workers' base pay by almost a third.
A FAAA bid to overhaul flight attendants' modern award based on gender-based undervaluation and changes to the nature of their work over the past two decades is seeking to boost pay rates by up to 62%, to a level beyond what some are paid under their agreements.
BHP's in-house labour hire company has been fined $15,000 and ordered to pay 85 production employees between $800 and $2400 each in compensation for unreasonably requiring them to work across Christmas holidays.
The Federal Government's long service leave scheme for the black coal industry has won special leave from the High Court to challenge a full Federal Court judgment that it says has significant implications for the LSL eligibility of shotfiring and explosive services workers.
A FWC presidential member has refused an Aldi bid to stay the FWC's first use of powers to unilaterally amend proposed agreements, observing that while the retailer has arguable appeal grounds, a bench should have the chance to weigh a final decision rather than risk the prospect of multiple intervening challenges.