A law firm has launched the first major underpayment class action against a private Australian university, it claims, over the alleged short-changing of casual academics.
The FWC has found that an engineer's "extremely insulting" WhatsApp messages about his manager, sent to colleagues on a day off, warranted his summary sacking, while nevertheless awarding him $14,000 compensation because the employer denied him a chance to explain.
A tribunal is poised to order a council to pay more than $900,000 to a worker it discriminated against by sacking him over his inability to drive an allocated vehicle, in a decision panning a "chilling" suggestion that show cause letters formed part of consultations to identify reasonable adjustments.
The MEU is funding a class action against BHP for requiring on-hire production and maintenance crew to work public holidays, allegedly without making a reasonable request or telling them they could reasonably refuse, while the mining giant is challenging the legal principle at the heart of the case.
The FWC has declined to reinstate a wharfie jailed for stalking radio star Jackie 'O' Henderson, instead awarding him $50,000 compensation after noting that his criminal record posed a significant hurdle to regaining the government security card necessary to work on the docks.
The FWC has awarded $4000 compensation to an allegedly unhelpful IT help desk employee, reminding employers that performance-managing workers is about clear expectations and the steps required to meet them rather than "handholding".
A judge has questioned the FWO's "vigour" in seeking penalties against an "impoverished" dairy business whose owner is already struggling to make $300 weekly instalments to compensate an underpaid worker.
A franchisor chief executive found in June to have engaged in "predatory and grooming" conduct towards a female employee 40 years his junior has now been ordered to pay her more than $72,000 in damages.
The NSW Industrial Court has found that a worker who started out as a "volunteer trainee" had been an employee and should have been paid, because he worked regularly and "meaningfully contributed" to the business.
