A FWC bench has emphasised the tribunal's need to properly scrutinise proposed agreements in finding that a senior tribunal member failed to follow principles of open justice when refusing to provide a union with the names of applicants for a mining services deal ultimately found to be a sham.
A senior FWC member has attributed a "de-skilling" and decline in competencies of IR practitioners to a lack of investment by employers and a loss of training pathways within unions after a long decline in density.
Employers with significant casual workforces have been given a guided tour of new legislative filters for assessing whether proposed deals are genuinely agreed, in a FWC decision focussing on the Fair Work Act's "employed at the time" provision.
The FWC has warned MEU general vice president Stephen Smyth it will not be so accommodating next time he wants to renew his entry permit should he ever repeat behaviour that attracted more than $80,000 in fines for using slurs such as "f--king scab", "maggot" and "dirty rat" during a coal mine strike.
A training college must pay more than $8000 to an accounts manager reputedly made redundant in anticipation of laws restricting international student numbers that never passed.
A FWC full bench has reinforced that a member did not expressly condemn using medicinal marijuana for pain management in a safety-critical role because it was not relevant to considering whether a council harshly sacked a worker who switched prescriptions to one containing THC.
DEWR has told the Annual Wage Review expert panel at a consultation hearing this morning that while the local economy will "not be immune" if international economic conditions deteriorate as a result of US tariffs and other factors, it expects domestic growth to gradually pick up over this year and 2026.
The FWC has ruled that Coles unlawfully calculated long service leave payments based on a seven-day rather than five-day week, while acknowledging there is "room for debate" on the meaning of an "ordinary working day", particularly for workers with variable rosters.
In a decision illustrating the challenges of conducting cases involving remote Indigenous employers, the FWC has awarded $18,000 to a sacked chief executive after failing to engage the respondent in proceedings despite 14 phone calls, numerous emails and five notices sent by express post.
The RACQ was entitled to sack an employee repeatedly punched in the face by a tow truck driver after attending an accident, a presidential member noting a lawyer's question as to what the worker might reasonably have expected when he pushed someone from an industry not known for its "shrinking violets".
