The FWC has upbraided a small business owner for informing a supervisor through an email drafted with help from ChatGPT that it had decided to retrench her, finding that sacking a worker via such a "cursory" means fails "to adhere to basic standards of decency".
The implications of the Federal Court's retail underpayments decision are only starting to be understood, with employment law academic Andrew Stewart warning of the significent consequences of its redefinition of employer record-keeping obligations and findings on proving workers' agreement to vary award conditions.
The Federal Court has approved a $174 million Victorian Government payout to settle 30 class actions on behalf of junior doctors, of which ASMOF will be reimbursed $175,000, following a finding that a health service "expressly and brazenly" instructed trainees to perform unpaid overtime.
The FSU says employers are now on notice that they must have genuine business grounds for refusing flexible work arrangements, after the FWC made orders to enable a Westpac employee to work from home to care for her children, finding "no question" her role can be "performed completely remotely".
The workplace watchdog's power to hold franchisors to account for franchisees' underpayments has been bolstered, after a full Federal Court today threw out a challenge by the Bakers Delight chain.
The FWC has found a flexible working request invalid, because of its "tenuous" connection to the worker's caring responsibilities and the strain his absence would have imposed on other workers.
A FWC full bench has rejected an employer's challenge to a finding that it must grant an employee's flexible work request, upholding a decision that reaffirms the precedence of NES provisions even when inconsistent with the terms of an enterprise agreement.
The FWC has today ruled a paramedic ineligible for primary carers' parental leave to tend to for his six-month old baby, because the enterprise agreement covering him only enables carers of newborns to access the entitlement.
The FWC has refused to reduce a worker's redundancy payout because the role the employer offered, after outsourcing the company's HR functions, would have paid less and required her to work in the office an additional day each week, despite the informality of her WFH arrangement.
After the FWC sought feedback about how it should proceed with retail award variation applications following the passage of Albanese Government legislation that circumvented a key element of one of the cases, the tribunal has acceded to a bid by retailers to also consider submissions on the effect of the recent Federal Court ruling on underpayments by Coles and Woolworths.
