The ACTU is recommending the FWC include more "practical detail" in its draft "right to disconnect" award term, to "spell out" what the Commission will consider when it determines whether or not a refusal is unreasonable and is also proposing a review in 12 months.
The proposed "right to disconnect" modern award clause is "mostly suitable", but should clarify that the entitlement is a "workplace right" within the meaning of the Fair Work Act's general protections provisions and specify the dispute resolution procedure to follow, an employment and contract law academic says.
In a case that weighs up employer rights when conducting investigations under commonly-used agreement provisions, a FWC full bench has rejected a worker's request for an investigation report that details his alleged misconduct, but has suggested the employer re-open its probe because it denied him natural justice.
The FWC has warned employers against giving "generic and blanket HR answers" when they provide their "reasonable business grounds" for knocking back flexibility requests, before ultimately rejecting a bid from a worker with challenging caring responsibilities to continue working entirely from home.
The FWC has laid bare the difficulty of running what amount to underpayment cases against universities, finding in a union-run matter that not only did the employer have no system in place to reliably record hours but that the tribunal lacked the power to order compensation anyway.
An employer has failed to win a stay on a FWC decision knocking back its request to be represented by a lawyer, which would have delayed an underpayments case, after a senior member found its agreement only allows representation for those initiating disputes.
Victoria Police rejected a crime scene officer's request for a flexible work arrangement on reasonable business grounds, the FWC has held, while urging the parties to embrace a "better than nothing" compromise.
A FWC presidential member has taken exception to a HSU official's description of a clinical handover area as a meal room suitable for conducting meetings, dismissing it as a "self-serving label. . . border[ing] on dishonest".
The FWC has directed senior representatives of supermarket giant Woolworths and the UWU to meet and seek to resolve more than 1000 disputes Australia-wide over a new productivity framework in the company's warehouses, after an individual brought his grievance with the regime to the tribunal.
A senior FWC member has delved into arbitral history to offer his own definition of a 'seven day shiftworker' after expressing frustration that there is no "simple" or "unambiguous" description of the term in the many awards it is employed.
