An FWC full bench has highlighted the limits of permissible ex parte communication between parties to agreements and tribunal members, in a ruling in which it found that such exchanges denied procedural fairness to the union objecting to a deal's approval.
The FWC has approved a new agreement that permits poultry giant Inghams to suspend workers without pay for up to three days during investigations into misconduct, after it found any detriment when compared with the award is outweighed by the deal's benefits.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has asked the Opposition to back new legislation that would scrap the Fair Work Act's mandatory four-yearly reviews of modern awards.
Planned industrial action by more than 20,000 Centrelink employees has been postponed after FWC-guided discussions saw the Department of Human Services withdraw an s418 order to halt the strike on the basis it was a protest against its so-called "robo-debt" scheme rather than a legitimate bargaining manouevre.
The FWC has upheld the summary dismissal of a rail worker who argued that her employer's failure to warn her or take action over misconduct stretching back as far as two years was akin to "condoning" her behaviour.
Mining giant Thiess has had a proposed enterprise agreement knocked back because it was not genuinely agreed, with the FWC finding the company chose the three employees who participated in the ballot to "manipulate" the result.
The FWC has issued former Tasmanian union peak body leader Kevin Harkins an entry permit, despite his "serious" past contraventions, after finding it is not the Commission's role to punish individuals for past wrongdoing.
The FWC has reinstated four workers after finding they were not "genuinely redundant" and that their employer took an "unduly hasty and largely tokenistic" approach to meeting its consultation and redeployment obligations.
The FWC has reinstated a Metro Trains Melbourne station officer after finding no justification for her sacking over fraudulent transactions on the Myki smartcard ticketing system.
