An FWC full bench has reserved its decision on an SDA application to include paid blood donor leave in five awards, after employers argued the entitlement has no place in the modern awards system and should be left for enterprise bargaining.
The FWC today gave a strong signal that it is anxious to bring to a head Coles employee Penny Vickers' bid to terminate the supermarket giant's enterprise agreement, acknowledging criticism that the case had dragged on before granting the night-fill worker an extension to supply supporting documents.
The Independent Education Union is urging NSW and ACT Catholic school teachers to endorse rolling stop-work action after it negotiated a "pretty good" agreement that nevertheless contained no guaranteed access to arbitration.
The FAAA says it is delighted with a new deal endorsed by more than 90% of voting Qantas international flight attendants, but the TWU has slammed it for perpetuating a two-tiered system that pays some cabin crew less than half the money for performing the same work.
A lower court has asked the Federal Court to distinguish between "jurisdiction" and "powers" after wrestling with the question in a case where a union accused an employer of breaching its enterprise agreement and the employer counter-claimed that the agreement was not genuinely agreed.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker for pressuring a colleague to join the AMWU after a "balanced and meticulous" external investigation found his actions amounted to bullying.
The FWC has ruled that a major alpine resort did not dismiss a ski patrol team member who had a "long history" of "discontent" with the workplace when it sent him an email last year notifying him that he wouldn't be re-employed this winter.
Fair Work Commission President Iain Ross has given parties involved in the domestic violence leave case one week to provide submissions in response to the full bench's preliminary view that affected employees should have access to unpaid leave.
While stopping short of categorising a long-time Esso employee who worked overseas as an on-hire worker, an FWC full bench has found that his failure to secure a "substantive" role with the company on return to Australia meant he could not rely on an industry award to protect him from unfair dismissal.
Prominent Melbourne lawyer Peter Gordon has confirmed he is re-launching his law firm and says "the doors are open" to recent high-profile departures from Slater & Gordon.