The Federal Circuit Court should have let a dismissed employee correct the name of her employer in a general protections claim even though it was wrong on the FWC's s368 certificate, the Federal Court has ruled.
An FWC full bench's decision to refuse an employer's appeal might have involved a significant procedural error, but a senior member's "terse" exchange with the company's counsel did not support a charge of bias, a court has found.
The FWC has opened the way for an on-hire casual employee to challenge his dismissal, after rejecting a labour hire company's jurisdictional objection that he could have no reasonable expectation of continuing employment, or was engaged for a specified task which came to an end.
In the first appeal against a Registered Organisations Commission decision, an FWC full bench has quashed the watchdog's refusal to grant a union more time to submit election information and observed that its approach to defending the case could imply "a lack of impartiality".
FWC President Iain Ross is proposing to delay starting the next four-yearly review of awards that is due to begin "as soon as practicable" after January 1, but is seeking parties' views on the issue.
Workers on "outer limits" fixed-term contracts and long-term casuals have been given more latitude to pursue unfair dismissal claims after an FWC full bench decision that brings the accepted precedent on employer-initiated terminations into line with Fair Work Act provisions.
A home-based sales representative has been compensated after the FWC found that he was sacked within a day of receiving a "manifestly unreasonable" ultimatum to pack up his life in Byron Bay and return to work in his employer's Sydney office.
The FWC has confirmed it will conduct a hearing on the CFMEU, MUA and TCFU merger on February 2 in Melbourne, subject to any Federal Court application for an inquiry into the unions' ballots within 30 days of their declaration.
The AMWU has welcomed an FWC recommendation to end the long-running maintenance dispute at Griffin Coal and put a proposed agreement to the workforce, calling the package a "common sense middle ground" and a "sensible solution".
