A full Federal Court has today dismissed an attempt to overturn the Fair Work Commission's rejection of a new enterprise agreement for aviation ground-handling company Aerocare.
The world's richest company has failed to win permission from the FWC for an external lawyer to defend its dismissal for alleged serious misconduct of an employee who is to be self-represented at a hearing next month.
In rejecting as "absurd" the expert evidence of a forensic accountant who calculated that Ambulance Victoria owed an on-call media officer $800,000 in unpaid entitlements, the Federal Circuit Court has instead ordered the employer to pay her $155,000, including for time spent sleeping.
In a significant decision on the FWC's power to deal with clashes between agreements and state laws, a tribunal member has found that jurisdiction was established by a combination of health and safety considerations and the absence of legislative reference to exclusive arbitrators.
Uber has repelled another attempt to establish that it is an employer, despite the FWC finding that a driver's relationship with the ride-sharing business was of "some magnitude".
In a significant addition to the jurisprudence around "arrangements" between transferring businesses, the FWC has rejected union arguments that the urgent use of an old employer's pathology equipment after a midnight handover should lead to continuing employees being retained on their existing, more generous enterprise agreement.
In upholding the dismissal on medical grounds of a prison officer who was later declared fit, the FWC has noted his union gained permission to obtain a second opinion but also assisted him in making an ill-fated decision not to pursue it until after his termination.
An FWC full bench has reserved its decision in a case that looms as a significant test of what constitutes a new activity for the purposes of making a greenfields agreement.
Provisional award clause grants more flexibility to casuals; Wages growth stuck in slow lane, says RBA; HR manager not unfairly sacked for complaints to CEO: Court; Inequality on rise as technology advances, says IMF.
