The Federal Court's top judge has approved a $180 million "stolen wages" settlement for Indigenous workers in the NT, but not before expressing dismay at the "excessive level of human resources" used by Shine Lawyers in pursuing the matter and sounding a warning about the rising incidence of litigation funders in class action cases.
The UFU has failed to convince the FWC that Fire Rescue Victoria used a procedurally unfair process when it suspended two workers, after Victoria's anti-corruption body found they accessed private work emails at Victorian branch secretary Peter Marshall's request.
The FWC has refused to approve a new deal for hamburger chain Grill'd despite 94% of employees voting it up, after finding some of its young workforce might not have understood they would be only 77 cents a week better off than under the award.
In its first decision on whether to give "removed" CFMEU construction division officials the chance to pursue jobs at other unions, the FWC has cleared former Queensland branch assistant leader Kane Lowth to take up a part-time role with the ETU but stopped short of allowing him to hold office or represent it in bargaining.
In response to a grieving mother's petition, Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt has committed to legislating to prevent employers from cancelling employer-paid parental leave for parents dealing with stillbirth or early infant death.
The Ai Group has accused Labor of disregarding its re-empowered IR umpire by taking out of its hands decisions to remove or reduce award penalty rates.
The Federal Court has refused to knock out an ETU claim that an employer fraudulently withheld information from the FWC when seeking approval for a new deal, allegedly concealing that the bulk of those voting had been engaged solely to take part in the ballot.
A FWC full bench has emphatically quashed a deputy president's decision to bin a worker's unfair dismissal application with five hours' notice just two days before Christmas, finding he misapplied the Commission's powers and "misapprehended" the facts.
The SDA says Federal Labor's multi-employer agreement stream has opened the way for Chemist Warehouse's highly-feminised, award-dependent workforce to bargain collectively when they previously had "no realistic path".
