In a lucrative Christmas/New Year period for the Commonwealth's coffers, the Federal Circuit Court has handed down penalties amounting to more than $580,000 in eight separate cases brought by the Fair Work Ombudsman against companies and their directors for breaches of the Fair Work Act.
Coles meatworkers in Victoria and Tasmania were entitled to vote to take protected industrial action because they had been genuinely seeking separate enterprise agreements late last year, a FWC full bench has ruled.
The Federal Court has thrown out a challenge by Victorian HSU leaders to the Fair Work Commission's inquiry into allegations that the union rorted the right of entry permit system.
Serco Sodexo Defence Services Pty Ltd has failed to convince the Fair Work Commission it obtained employment for the vast bulk of its workforce when it lost its Defence Department contracts last year, and now faces a hefty redundancy bill for the hundreds of employees who found jobs with the new contractors.
The Federal Court has ordered a lawyer to personally pay another party's legal costs in a general protections claim, finding that he unreasonably advised his client to add his employer's solicitor to the application.
In a move that the government has dismissed as a political stunt, the ACTU has told Employment Minister Eric Abetz he should suspend his IR legislative agenda for at least a year to enable the Heydon trade union inquiry and the Productivity Commission Fair Work Act review to run their course.
Almost half of federally registered enterprise agreements contain general commitments to improve productivity and a high proportion identify specific productivity measures, but their effectiveness is difficult to measure, according to a new FWC report.
A Federal Court full bench has reversed the reinstatement of a government solicitor who had been found to have suffered adverse action when dismissed while suffering depression.
A shipping company breached an officer's contract of employment and failed to follow its discrimination policy when it conducted a flawed investigation into alleged bullying by her captain, a full Federal Court has ruled.
