The Albanese Government's first major tranche of IR legislation beefs-up workers' rights to secure flexible working arrangements and empowers the FWC to arbitrate if conciliation of a refused request fails.
A worker who claims FWC President Iain Ross admitted to having a problem with commissioners' "colonial attitude" has lost his Federal Court bid to sue the tribunal for racial discrimination.
The Albanese Government, in its first Budget, has allocated almost $70 million over four years for the FWO to take over the ABCC's regulatory role after its abolition, while delivering $20 million over the same period for the FWC to handle gender equity pay cases.
The FWC has rejected an employer's bid to stop planned strikes at a $1 billion lithium plant, after finding that its interpretation of notification requirements would effectively shave a day off the protected period.
A FWC full bench has taken a union and employer to task for failing to notify it to resume hearing the former's challenge to a contentious hospitality deal under which employees can work "voluntary" additional hours without penalties.
Agreements lodged with the FWC in the fortnight to September 9 delivered annual rises of just 2.4% – the lowest in the short history of the Commission's "real-time" bargained wage data – after education deals effectively paying 1.7% a year to more than 10,000 workers dragged down the average increase.
John Holland's failure to identify the significance of a decision rejecting its earlier greenfields deal when applying to have an almost identical one approved "verged on misleading", a FWC full bench has held, quashing its approval while refusing to quietly do so "by consent".
The FWC has tossed out an unfair dismissal claim from a government lawyer responsible for overseeing safe workplaces, finding he fully understood the seriousness of "wilfully and persistently" refusing to confirm his COVID-19 vaccination status.
A Federal Court majority has slashed by more than 65% penalties imposed on a government-owned organisation for breaching agreement obligations, finding them "manifestly excessive".
Weeks after the CFMMEU's mining and energy division borrowed from the ABCC's playbook to argue for its demerger from the broader union, the latter has returned fire in similar terms, suggesting the division is hardly on the side of the angels itself.
