The Fair Work Commission is missing its internal deadlines for approving enterprise agreements as it copes with an increasing number of complex deals that might need undertakings.
Workplace Minister Craig Laundy has been granted permission to intervene in the approval of a new enterprise agreement covering the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade, despite the UFU's criticism of it as an "unprecedented hijack" of the process.
A multinational company bungled what could otherwise have been a fairly straightforward dismissal of a detention officer who slept on the job, the FWC finding that "blindsiding" her with photographic evidence at the second of two meetings denied the otherwise exemplary employee procedural fairness.
The FWC has given Arnott's biscuits the go-ahead to introduce urine testing of all employees for drug and alcohol use, while the food giant has agreed to trial a union proposal for workers to take immediate leave without pay if they record a positive from oral or breathalyser self-tests before a shift.
The FWO is seeking to fine the CFMMEU's MUA division more than $3.5 million for unlawful industrial action against Hutchison Ports, using a novel argument that historic contraventions of the same Fair Work Act provision denies the union the benefit of the legislation's single course of conduct mechanism.
The FWC has tossed out for want of jurisdiction an "unprecedented" pay dispute lodged by sacked FAAA national division secretary Andrew Staniforth against Qantas to correct overpayments, with a senior deputy president stating he has never encountered a "stranger industrial proposition".
An FWC full bench has refused to overturn the dismissal of an animal welfare officer who alleged that his colleagues mishandled an investigation into the dumping of three crocodiles at a school.
A one-time star employee's anti-bullying application has been rejected despite acknowledgment of his "devastation" at being placed on successive performance improvement plans he believed resulted from unfair interpretations of his position description.
The Federal Court, in re-determining part of a decision awarding $150,000 in underpayments to an ex-employee, has held that she is entitled to a year's accident make-up pay as it kept accruing after her employment ended, but says her superannuation accrual ended with her job.
The Federal Court has ordered a company and its director to pay substantial fines for failing to pass on more than $11,000 in parental leave payments to a cook and then concealing their actions after the FWO began asking questions.
