In an indication of the harder line the FWC is taking on allowing lawyers to appear, it has rejected a bid for representation by a large well-resourced employer with thousands of employees that claimed its in-house IR and HR personnel lacked sufficient advocacy experience to defend an unfair dismissal case.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a senior ETU delegate who objected to his employer's introduction of GPS tracking, finding he deliberately wrapped his device in a Twisties bag to conceal his whereabouts and falsified service records when absent from work.
The concept of the "farm gate" is virtual rather than physical in the horticultural sector, an FWC full bench has found in a coverage decision it backdated by eight years to ensure employers are not exposed to backpay claims.
In a ruling that underlines the Fair Work Ombudsman's pursuit of accessorial liability against advisors, a court has for the first time imposed a fine on an accountancy firm involved in an employer's underpayments.
The High Court has refused to grant special leave to appeal a full Federal Court finding that a CFMEU official needed a federal entry permit to assist a health and safety representative when he was invited onto a construction site under Victorian OHS laws.
The FWC has found that because an Adelaide council is not a constitutional corporation the tribunal cannot deal with cross anti-bullying orders sought by its acting chief executive and one of its elected councillors, but it says other councils might be trading corporations covered by its jurisdiction.
The FWO has initiated its first contempt of court application against a Cairns businessman for allegedly breaching a freezing order by transferring $41,035 out of two company accounts to a family trust when still owing $85,000 to the Commonwealth and former employees.
The Registered Organisations Commission has flagged it will claim legal professional privilege over about 20 documents related to the AFP raid on the AWU last month.
The CFMEU says it is confident in its challenge to an agreement Thiess struck with three maintenance workers prior to securing a major mining contract, after a full Federal Court remitted the employer's appeal on the basis that an FWC full bench wrongly denied the union "the fruits of its victory".
A union delegate has been reinstated after the FWC determined that the absence of managerial opposition to a brief on-site "undies" protest meant it failed the legislative definition of unlawful industrial action.
