Faced with "simply unsustainable" growth in its caseload, the FWC is seeking to improve efficiency, starting with general protections cases involving dismissals, up by 27% over five years, partly on the back of paid agents using them as a "substitute" for unfair sacking claims, the tribunal's president said today.
The FWC has thrown out a worker's unfair dismissal claim after he threatened his employer's chief executive with a "double tap to the head", disobeyed FWC directions and sent the employer more than 200 emails in a single week containing "nonsense" and further menaces.
A senior FWC member has rejected a costs claim, observing that with rising numbers of self-represented applicants using the tribunal to pursue grievances, its directions are "not always treated with the same reverence and compliance" as in other forums.
The National Construction Industry Forum has today unanimously endorsed a reform blueprint for the building and construction industry that pushes for the Albanese Government to give the FWC and FWO dispute resolution and enforcement powers.
The FWC is introducing reforms to tackle a blowout in general protections claims and the paid agents using them as a "business model", while it is also incorporating AI into major aspects of its work, according to its President, Adam Hatcher.
The FWC has found a former CFMEU construction division official "removed" by administrator Mark Irving KC is fit to hold office in a union and act as a bargaining representative, five months after it cleared him to take up a part-time role with the ETU.
FWC GM Murray Furlong has reminded the Albanese Government of recommendations to legislate to reverse onerous regulatory requirements imposed by the former Coalition Government on registered organisations that go beyond what is required of listed companies, in response to a request for productivity-lifting initiatives ahead of last month's economic reform roundtable.
An employment service worker caught out by a legal technicality has won more time to challenge his sacking, which he links to an allegedly "inappropriate" workplace conversation after a Sorry Day event.
A FWC full bench has quashed a finding that a government-owned First Nations accommodation service dismissed a manager by breaking a "promise" to convert her non-continuing contract arrangement to permanent employment once she obtained Australian citizenship.
