A tram company's payments to a driver it suspended then sacked for texting on the job made up for procedural shortcomings arising from its "hands off" HR practices, the FWC has found.
The head of the peak small business body has welcomed changes implemented by the Fair Work Commission's president, but is less keen on the tribunal's members, accusing them of failing to "take reality into account" on issues such as penalty rates and minimum hours for junior retail workers.
Fair Work Commission Vice President Michael Lawler says he has been under "enormous and sustained personal stress" since 2011, due to legal proceedings and media reportage involving his partner, former HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson.
The FWC has reinstated a Toll employee who made racist comments and has recommended the company seek to reverse its "hostile working environment" by participating in the Commission's developing better workplaces program.
In rare public comments by a member of the Fair Work Commission, Vice-President Michael Lawler has rejected allegations or imputations of wrongdoing against him as "demonstrably false and malicious".
An independent review of the FWC’s trial of "triaging" enterprise agreement applications says that making the process permanent and national could cut processing costs almost in half and save $1 million a year.
The FWC has decided against referring a bullying matter to an OHS regulator, after the complainant failed to establish he was at risk of continued bullying because he had left the workplace.
The massive $54 billion Gorgon LNG project could gain an assurance of industrial peace for the largest part of its workforce, if workers employed by one of its major contractors accept a new FWC-brokered enterprise deal with fewer working days in each roster cycle.
A "tit-for-tat" culture of poor communication and disrespect between management and the AMWU printing division has been turned around at Orora Fibre Packaging, which has increased its profitability since participating in a "collaborative transformation process" supported by the Fair Work Commission.
The Abbott Government has urged the Fair Work Commission to take a "cautious approach" in this year's minimum wage review due to below-trend GDP growth and a slower than expected recovery in non-mining sectors, while the ACTU says the small business measures in the Budget "dramatically improve the affordability" of pay rises in the award-reliant sector.
