A judge has questioned the FWO's "vigour" in seeking penalties against an "impoverished" dairy business whose owner is already struggling to make $300 weekly instalments to compensate an underpaid worker.
The FWC has awarded almost $25,000 to a former nightclub bookkeeper after finding that the company did not sufficiently remove her ex-husband and majority owner from the decision to sack her for mistakenly posting a t-pless photo in a workplace WhatsApp group.
FWC President Adam Hatcher has refused to stay the deregistration of one auditor and suspension of another found to fallen short in their duties to an embattled HSU branch, concluding that no weight should be given to their "desire for reputational repair" while their appeals are heard.
A Federal Court judge is using a McDonald's class action to test the ability of AI to transform the way courts collate and analyse vast quantities of information, following a speech in which he urged a "far more ambitious" approach to harnessing the technology.
The nursing union is prosecuting an aged care provider it accuses of over-counting the "care minutes" that are a key part of the Albanese Government's reforms to lift standards in the sector.
A judge has urged courts to be "far more ambitious" in harnessing AI, potentially by developing tools to guide and synthesise cases filed by self-represented applicants, to analyse discovery material, and to change the machinery for using expert knowledge.
A worker's one-day-late general protections claim can proceed, after the FWC accepted that the AMWU's withdrawal from representing him just two days before the filing deadline left him "temporarily incapacitated".
The FWC has temporarily increased the vehicle-related allowances in the SCHADS and aged care awards to compensate workers for the fuel price surge from the Middle East conflict, but has declined to make the change in 39 other awards.
A FWC full bench has refused to delay the phasing-in of junior rates changes, while rejecting SDA arguments that a six-month qualifying period before 18 to 20-year-old retail, fast food and pharmacy workers receive full adult pay should be based on their time under an award rather than length of service with an individual employer.
