In the first test of Secure Jobs zombie-slayer provisions, a FWC full bench has refused to delay the automatic axing of a scaffolding company's 14-year-old deal after establishing that, contrary to the employer's claims, many of its workers will be better off under the award.
A CFMMEU organiser ordered to pay $10,000 out of his own pocket for entry breaches has avoided having his permit withdrawn after the FWC found that doing so would be "punitive and nothing more".
The FWC has found that a company's failure to meet modern IR standards, including its HR manager's attempt to "retrospectively" dismiss a security investigator, provided the necessary exceptional circumstances to accept her late unfair dismissal application.
An employer held to have caused a psychological injury by imposing a COVID-19 vaccination requirement on a driver must pay more than $80,000 in compensation, plus medical costs, after its unreasonable ultimatum rendered him unable to work.
The FWC has found a worker's false reports about his colleagues created "psychosocial safety" risks and provided a valid reason for Virgin Australia to dismiss him.
A sacked worker was not so incapacitated by purported mental health problems that she could not continue to offer "medium and psychic services", the FWC has held in refusing to extend time for her general protections claim.
The FWC has refused to suspend engineers' industrial action at a Virgin Australia subsidiary while their employer pursues an intractable bargaining declaration, in an early test of the new Secure Jobs provision.
In a decision highlighting the difficulties that can arise from agreement clauses linked to awards and the NES, the FWC has handed back Simplot workers' arbitration rights for casual conversion disputes but removed mention of their entitlement to access permanency after nine months.
A law firm has failed to overturn the "bulk" of a court decision to award a junior solicitor more than $185,000 in compensation and penalties after his sacking for making almost 250 complaints.