In the first FWC full bench consideration of Secure Jobs Act flexible work dispute provisions, a worker's application has fallen at the first hurdle because she failed to provide her employer with written reasons and offered "unsatisfactory" evidence about her alleged disability.
The FWC has upheld a major insurance provider's sacking of a work-from-home employee whose keystrokes data revealed inactivity 90% of the time, finding her circumstances "all the more regrettable" given her previous long history of satisfactory service.
Interested parties have until June 16 to respond to a FWC bench's proposal to amend model award terms to highlight the two "alternative and parallel avenues" now available to resolve disputes over flexible work and unpaid parental leave requests.
Woolworths has called for the Albanese Government to initiate an urgent "proactive review" of the retail award, arguing it would produce better outcomes for their predominantly female workforce than a shift to multi-employer bargaining.
The FWC has upheld Victoria Police's rejection of a transit officer's flexibility request because it would exacerbate already "bleak" safety issues arising from understaffing in Melbourne's most crime-affected region.
The FWC has observed that a Victorian worker's application to work full-time from home under flexible work arrangements was largely motivated by her opposition to COVID-19 vaccinations, in upholding her employer's refusal of her request.
A university supervisor's rejection of an academic's five-year work-from-home application and his repeated "advice" about how to use students' work to reach research targets did not constitute bullying, the FWC has held.
The FWC has taken the National Audit Office to task for revoking permission for a veteran public servant "at increased risk" from COVID-19 to work from home and then sacking her after she refused to return to Canberra while she cared for her dying uncle at their second residence.
The NSW IRC has rejected a nurse's bid for a flexible working arrangement under the State public sector's "if not, why not" regime to enable her to meet her caring responsibilities.