In a warning to employers undertaking investigations of workplace complaints, the FWC has ordered a mushroom grower to compensate a former harvest team leader sacked on the basis of "scanty" hearsay evidence and the "sheer number" of allegations about bullying and racial discrimination.
An employer has won a rare costs order against an experienced paid agent after the FWC agreed that he should "never" have run a pregnancy discrimination case given there was no evidence the on-hire worker was ever dismissed.
A NDIS provider has refuted allegations it took unlawful adverse action by sacking a worker because of her autism spectrum disorder, with a FWC consent arbitration finding her efforts to rescue a dog and dispose of a client's medication exceeded the scope of her duties.
The FWC has ruled that an intoxicated FIFO female mineworker rubbing up against and trying to hold hands with her male colleagues when commuting to her worksite amounted to harassment and s-xual harassment and warranted BHP dismissing her.
The Albanese Government has told a FWC full bench it supports its review of gender undervaluation of five female-dominated awards, but wants it to phase-in any resulting large increases to manage the effects on the public purse.
The FWC has found a long-serving BHP Coal worker who had "clearly not adjusted to the modern workplace" s-xually-harassed two colleagues, but a rushed investigative process and lack of a proper opportunity to respond rendered his dismissal unfair.
WA's Cook Labor Government has introduced legislation to lift casual loading from 20% to 25%, give some workers an enforceable right to request flexibility, and empower the IRC to discipline industrial agents, but it continues to lag on portable LSL.
A parliamentary inquiry has recommended the Albanese Government consider amending the Fair Work Act's right to request flexible work to ensure menopausal women can access it, while it also wants reproductive leave added to the NES and awards.
A full Federal Court has overturned a ruling that Sydney Trains unlawfully discriminated against a trainee driver it sacked for failing to disclose that she had ADHD and autism, finding a judge relied on a "number of interrelated assumptions" unsupported by evidence.
Queensland's Miles Government has secured the passage of legislation to introduce a broad positive duty to eliminate not only sexual harassment and harassment on the basis of s-x, but discrimination and "other objectionable conduct" as far as possible.
