A labour law academic says a UN World Court finding that workers' right to strike is protected might revive ILO scrutiny of the extent to which the Fair Work Act "over-restricts" protected action, while a lawyer says it might "change the trajectory" of IR litigation and reform.
As thousands of early childhood education and care workers prepare to walk out over feared pay cuts of between 4% and 15% when their taxpayer-funded retention scheme expires in November, the federal minister responsible is declining to provide certainty on the government's future intentions.
Queensland Rail says "the public has lost" after it and the Crisafulli Government again failed to stop industrial action hitting trains through to the end of June, despite the FWC accepting it will affect this weekend's NRL Magic Round and might pose safety risks.
Queensland's Crisafulli Government is again seeking FWC intervention to stop industrial action affecting the rail network, ahead of the State hosting the NRL Magic Round and the tribunal kicking off a series of intensive negotiations this week.
In a case testing the extent to which employers can withhold pay during protected industrial action, the Federal Court today conducted a hearing into the AWU's claim that Chevron unlawfully deducted loading and allowances from workers during stoppages at its WA facilities.
A worker has resigned from Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital following a FWC finding that her employer can continue with a disciplinary process, after police charged her over a protest at an Israeli restaurant and a doxxing organisation revealed her identity.
The FWC has backed a mining company's denial of a worker's request for flexible work to enable her to care for her baby, in a decision finding fairness a "neutral consideration" where both parties have acted reasonably.
Before the first Right to Disconnect dispute hearing, scheduled for this morning, Pacific National resolved the matter in a private conference, leaving the Fair Work Act's RtD provisions untested after 20 months in operation.
The FWC has found a private health care provider should re-start consultations about removing a "legacy" condition of paid meal breaks for its longest-serving nurses, after it told them the apparently undocumented benefit is no longer "an option".
The RTBU will argue in the first right to disconnect dispute hearing that an on-call allowance fails to adequately compensate a worker and the FWC should find reasonable his refusal to answer or make calls on his days off.
