Workers s-xually harassed before the Secure Jobs, Better Pay changes came into effect in March will have to choose whether to omit complaints for conduct that occurred before that time to use the new provisions, or "make a potentially less advantageous application" using the old provisions, according to an employment law expert.
A FWC full bench will next month hear a Virgin Australia subsidiary's bid for an intractable bargaining declaration, in the first test of the Secure Jobs legislation's deadlock-breaking provision, while the tribunal will consider in late August RAFFWU's bid to terminate the world's largest company's enterprise agreement.
The FWC has found a worker's false reports about his colleagues created "psychosocial safety" risks and provided a valid reason for Virgin Australia to dismiss him.
A sacked worker was not so incapacitated by purported mental health problems that she could not continue to offer "medium and psychic services", the FWC has held in refusing to extend time for her general protections claim.
In an early test of Secure Jobs changes that outlaw pay secrecy mandates, a former casual sales assistant at a landmark Melbourne bookshop has begun legal action in the Federal Circuit Court, alleging it no longer offered her shifts after she disclosed a pay rise and backpay to her fellow workers.
The FWC has refused to suspend engineers' industrial action at a Virgin Australia subsidiary while their employer pursues an intractable bargaining declaration, in an early test of the new Secure Jobs provision.
The MUA says crew working on ships servicing key offshore gas operations have stopped protected action over their workplace compensation arrangements, but maritime employers have warned the struggle to find insurers is an industry-wide problem.
In a decision highlighting the difficulties that can arise from agreement clauses linked to awards and the NES, the FWC has handed back Simplot workers' arbitration rights for casual conversion disputes but removed mention of their entitlement to access permanency after nine months.
The income and compensation caps for unfair dismissal claims are set to increase on Saturday, along with filing fees for a range of other applications.
