Despite Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke's reluctance to hold back parts of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill and its many "positive reforms", a leading labour law and IR academic says drafting issues and crossbench concerns will make fast passage a challenge.
A court has told the RTBU it will have to wait until next year to learn whether it might be exposed to damages after Sydney Trains workers bargaining for a new deal gave customers "free rides" as part of industrial action over a six-week period.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has upheld a finding that a labour hire company must make redundancy payments to a dozen employees, detailing the steps made by its chief people officer but ruling it didn't do enough to procure alternative employment for its workforce.
A FWC full bench has lashed energy giant Woodside for its "impertinent" suggestion that a senior tribunal member should have supplied evidence that directions she issued while considering an AWU majority support bid, came from a Commission template.
In a significant ruling on supposed 'cancel culture', a court has found a leading sandstone university and its former deputy vice chancellor breached an agreement's intellectual freedom clause when the institution sacked a lecturer for superimposing a swastika on a posted image of an Israeli flag.
The FWC has granted a worker an extension of time after its server "quarantined" his unfair dismissal claim email because of a "dangerous" attachment, but the Commission says that the issue will soon be remedied when it requires lodgement via an online form.
The "lawlessness test" that is likely to prevent unions such as the CFMMEU from engaging in multi-employer bargaining could be made more specific after discussions with employers and unions, according to Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
A senior FWC member has refused to recuse himself for addressing a worker's representative as "mister" in an unfair dismissal case that argued an employer should have permitted an unvaccinated employee to keep working from home during COVID-19 restrictions instead of sacking her.
The Albanese Government's IR legislation provides "big improvements" in the bargaining framework for low-paid workers, but the benefits of the multi-employer provisions might be more limited, according to a leading workplace law expert.
The Senate inquiry into the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will report just six days after submissions close on November 11, as Labor seeks to clear the way for its passage before Parliament rises on December 1.
