The FWC has found that a nine-week gap in an Uber Eats driver's recent work history made him ineligible to claim unfair deactivation, while refusing the company's bid to import the "reasonable expectation of continuing work" principle from the unfair dismissal jurisdiction.
In a genuine redundancy ruling, the FWC has confirmed that it simply needs to consider whether employers have notified a retrenchment in writing, rather than whether they have provided notice in "the most optimum manner".
A former Labor MP and current FWC deputy president has, after fending off another recusal application, dismissed claims it would be unfair, unreasonable or unconstitutional to grant same-job, same-pay orders lifting the pay of on-hire workers at a Whitehaven coal mine by up to $30,000 a year.
Drawing on limited legislative guidance and case law on instalment payments, the FWC has ordered an employer to split a $30,000 compensation payment over two months rather than the 12 it sought, finding the worker entitled to the "fruits" of his claim "in a timely manner".
The Federal Circuit and Family Court has told a senior manager it lacks the power to declare Bunnings breached whistleblower laws when it allegedly sacked him after he accused it of short-changing staff, but it can award compensation if his claims succeed as part of his adverse action case.
A worker's covert recordings of disciplinary meetings might have been lawful if he had only used them to "aid his recall", rather than submitting the audio and transcripts as evidence in his unfair dismissal case, the FWC has ruled.
The FWC has backed the sacking of a worker who shoved and swore at a woman as they rode an elevator towards his office, rejecting his claims of self-defence and that the employer's code of conduct did not apply because his shift had not started.
The FWC has extended time for a HR manager to challenge his sacking for allegedly tweaking his own contract, finding a union industrial officer's failed use of the federal election as a "mind memo" led to him lodging it two days late.
A full Federal Court has cast doubt over a $40 million underpayments case after ruling that a FWC presidential member and a bench led by president Adam Hatcher failed to properly consider an employer's arguments about the improbability of penalty rates not already being wrapped up in loaded rates paid under two agreements.
A FWC member has refused to recuse herself, after a worker likened her advice to an alleged bully during a conference to helping a s-xual assault perpetrator escape justice.
