The FWC has rejected a bus company’s objection to the TWU choosing a ballot agent with no experience in the transport industry, finding that the Commission cannot dictate the use of one over another.
A full Federal Court has upheld findings that Qantas and Jetstar had no reasonable choice but to stand down hundreds of engineers due to coronavirus-driven events outside their control, but one member of the bench has warned that an incorrect interpretation of "stoppage of work" has been allowed to stand.
In a case applying the High Court's new guidelines on contractors, a judge has rejected a worker's bid for leave, super and redundancy payments after finding he was not an employee despite averaging 38 hours a week over eight years for a solitary employer.
In a decision closely examining the FWC's powers to make scope orders, a full bench majority has found that an employer's failure to spell out classifications for a proposed agreement rendered the process "defective".
The FWC has ordered Qantas to reinstate a trainer accused of inappropriately staring at a female employee's breasts during a "distinguishably lewd" safety demonstration, while taking aim at a "ludicrous" video it used to demonstrate s-xual harassment.
A FWC member has applied the "well known 'duck principle'" in holding that a tyre recycling company suspected of phoenixing unfairly sacked a worker who complained about unpaid superannuation, before threatening to kill a director.
A child protection public servant who claimed on Facebook that the military would remove kids from unvaccinated parents and depicted the former NSW premier as Hitler has won compensation after a tribunal found circumstances rendered her dismissal harsh.
In what appears to be its second substantive ruling in its new anti-sexual-harassment jurisdiction, the FWC has found that a supervisor sexually harassed a casual chef when he badgered her to have sex with him, but has thrown out the case because the victim is no longer with the employer.
In a thinly-veiled shot at a tribunal colleague who used her position to criticise vaccine mandates, a senior FWC member has emphasised that it is not for the Commission to undermine the law by entertaining parties' "alternative policy preferences".
The Federal Court has rejected a law firm's attempt to stay payment of compensation awarded to a junior solicitor, the judge finding he is "entitled to the fruits of his victory" while the judgment is appealed.