A law firm that forced a solicitor to work "self-evidently excessive" hours and "deprived her of any form of personal autonomy or agency without any rational justification" has been ordered to pay her $50,000 in fines and interest.
The FWC has found it "fanciful" to suggest that an employer might allow a HR professional to send extensive confidential information to his personal email address without authorisation, ruling his serious misconduct warranted dismissal.
With the Greens pledging today to use their power in the Senate to create the "most progressive parliament" Australia has seen, labour law academic Andrew Stewart says there is "every reason" to expect movement on their priority IR issues, such as a four-day working week and reproductive leave.
"Offboarding" a worker and processing her "final pay" before she went on holiday did not amount to a termination of employment, the FWC has ruled, because although the term "superficially" indicates dismissal, the worker failed to consider the circumstances of her labour-hire arrangement.
In further fruits from efforts to organise in the Pilbara, workers at two power stations will gain a 4.3% to 12.6% pay uplift and better conditions under their first union deal.
The HSU's Victorian No 1 branch will enter full administration and secretary Diana Asmar will leave her job, under in an in-principle agreement reached with the union's national executive, which it expects the Federal Court to approve on Monday.
The FWC has rejected an individual bargaining representative's bid for an intractable bargaining declaration after finding negotiations with a major transport operator have merely "stalled" and are not yet at a stalemate.
A pregnant lawyer who filed her adverse action application before her dismissal took effect will get a chance to pursue her claim, after the FWC waived the "irregularity" to save both parties the cost and time involved in dealing with a fresh application that would have been filed late.
Surging demand to join the early childhood education supported bargaining agreement and access its substantial pay increases has spurred the FWC to tailor a more efficient process for handling the "large volume" of applications.
A casual Coles worker with limited availability has failed to overturn his sacking following a hiatus of more than three months, but the FWC says the store manager should have taken an additional step before dismissing him.