Virgin Australia can use pilots' entire final pay to meet increasing costs of training new recruits if they leave within three years, under a domestic pilots' agreement that the FWC has approved despite finding it "likely" that the clause is not a permitted deduction.
In upholding the sacking of a nurse who slept on the job and refused to meet with her employer without a Health Workers Union organiser who was banned over OHS concerns, the FWC has found it not unreasonable for an HR manager to threaten to resign rather than work with the official.
The world's richest company has failed to win permission from the FWC for an external lawyer to defend its dismissal for alleged serious misconduct of an employee who is to be self-represented at a hearing next month.
In rejecting as "absurd" the expert evidence of a forensic accountant who calculated that Ambulance Victoria owed an on-call media officer $800,000 in unpaid entitlements, the Federal Circuit Court has instead ordered the employer to pay her $155,000, including for time spent sleeping.
In a significant decision on the FWC's power to deal with clashes between agreements and state laws, a tribunal member has found that jurisdiction was established by a combination of health and safety considerations and the absence of legislative reference to exclusive arbitrators.
Bench says employer's "bland" description no help to BOOT assessment; FWC takes chainsaw to gardener's sacking; and Tribunal rejects bid to require witness to appear in person.
In a significant addition to the jurisprudence around "arrangements" between transferring businesses, the FWC has rejected union arguments that the urgent use of an old employer's pathology equipment after a midnight handover should lead to continuing employees being retained on their existing, more generous enterprise agreement.
In upholding the dismissal on medical grounds of a prison officer who was later declared fit, the FWC has noted his union gained permission to obtain a second opinion but also assisted him in making an ill-fated decision not to pursue it until after his termination.
So-called 'comic' employment contracts replacing dense legalese with images have been coolly received by both the peak employer and employee bodies, each expressing a preference for the power of words when it comes to interpretation and enforcement.
