The FWC has finally brought the curtain down on a legal secretary's "spiteful" six-year campaign against her sacking, finding her "incredibly patient" employer had a valid reason to dismiss her after she blocked it from assessing her reasons for a lengthy absence.
In a significant ruling on what constitutes a "genuine" effort to reach agreement while bargaining, a FWC full bench has upheld a member's decision to grant a PABO to a union, despite it having met with the employer only once by the time its application came before the tribunal.
A FWC member has refused to be drawn into a dispute between a private rail freight operator and the RTBU over whether a remote locality allowance should be calculated on travel by road or "as the crow flies", concluding that she could not disentangle conflicting versions about its inclusion in an agreement.
WA's Cook Labor Government has introduced legislation to lift casual loading from 20% to 25%, give some workers an enforceable right to request flexibility, and empower the IRC to discipline industrial agents, but it continues to lag on portable LSL.
Amazon will require its corporate employees across the globe, including in Australia, to return to the office five days a week from early next year to strengthen the company's culture, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
A parliamentary inquiry has recommended the Albanese Government consider amending the Fair Work Act's right to request flexible work to ensure menopausal women can access it, while it also wants reproductive leave added to the NES and awards.
The Health Services Union has won 12 days paid reproductive leave in a deal for about 1600 disability service workers, in a "watershed" development it says could be expanded nationwide, as it bargains to entrench the entitlement in five further agreements.
South Australia's Malinauskas Government is likely to soon secure passage of legislation establishing a portable long service leave scheme for the community services sector, with potential to build on it to include other sectors in future.
A full Federal Court has overturned a ruling that Sydney Trains unlawfully discriminated against a trainee driver it sacked for failing to disclose that she had ADHD and autism, finding a judge relied on a "number of interrelated assumptions" unsupported by evidence.
The FWC has extended time for a worker's one-day-late unfair dismissal claim, finding his employer's "misleading" letter confirming his sacking resulted in his representative miscalculating the deadline.
