A full Federal Court has described as "astounding" a CFMEU argument that it should not be held liable for organisers' unauthorised entries to building sites because the alleged contraventions should be viewed as an exercise of "power", rather than of a "right" defined by the Fair Work Act.
The FWC has given the go-ahead for the regional director of a multibillion dollar real estate business to pursue his unfair dismissal claim despite earning well above the income cap, because his duties established he was in fact an award-covered sales representative.
The Turnbull Government has quietly withdrawn parental leave legislation that sought remove employers from a mandatory role as "paymasters", prohibit "double dipping" and increase the maximum Government payment to 20 weeks.
In a case that has already forced two managers last year to pay almost $50,000 in profits to their former employer, a full Federal Court has found on appeal that their new employer must also hand over more than $6.2 million in profits earned under their business plan.
The FWC has extended time for an employee who claimed "force majeure" and an "Act of God" after Cyclone Debbie and representative error delayed lodgement of her unfair dismissal application.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of an Australian Federal Police officer who stalked and intimidated his ex-partner when he left "used" condoms in her front yard and made offensive remarks on her Facebook page.
The FWC has criticised a company for fundamental failures of due process in a dismissal overseen by its HR function and warned that treating workers as human resources runs the risk of ignoring that they are "easily damaged" human beings "and when faulty they should be handled with more care than machines".
The bid to terminate the Coles Supermarkets enterprise agreement will be heard by an FWC full bench, after the Commission accepted that the 75,000-strong workforce it covered elevated the case to a "a matter of public significance because of its potentially broad economic and commercial effects."
The Federal Court has imposed a $2,500 fine on CFMEU construction and general division national secretary Dave Noonan, over unlawful conduct that halted work at Perth's $1.2 billion children's hospital project in 2013.
The FWC's termination of industrial action in the Victorian electricity industry took into account that it could "almost immediately" affect generators that regularly meet more than half of the state's power supply.
