The "labour productivity bubble" that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic can provide lessons for the future, and hybrid working can be more beneficial to productivity than wholly working from home or the workplace, according to a new Productivity Commission report.
A spurned TWU delegate found to have aired false bullying allegations against a co-delegate during a meeting at which he referred to him as "kid" and told him to put his "b-lls on the line" by holding a vote has lost his unfair dismissal case, despite his employer's procedural failings.
A FWC presidential member has lauded the Secure Jobs' compulsory post-PABO conferences that enable the Commission to "jumpstart" and accelerate bargaining, while at the same time reducing the incentive for unions to take industrial action.
The FWC has refused to order the UWU to stop picketing that has allegedly blocked access to a major baking supplier's manufacturing facility, finding that it had not impeded bargaining and that the employer produced no evidence of its economic impact.
Just 6% of clerical workers who seek WFH arrangements are knocked back by their employer, according to a new Swinburne University study commissioned by the FWC as part of the work from home test case.
A FWC bench has emphasised the tribunal's need to properly scrutinise proposed agreements in finding that a senior tribunal member failed to follow principles of open justice when refusing to provide a union with the names of applicants for a mining services deal ultimately found to be a sham.
A retrenched educator who rejected an alternative role because she wanted to keep working from home at least a day a week has lost her severance entitlements, after the FWC found she did not have a formal right to maintain her flexible arrangements.
The FWC has set aside 17 days from October 20 and November 25 for a full bench to hear a major SDA challenge to junior rates in the retail, fast food and pharmacy awards, while Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth has responded to a call to weigh in.
Employers with significant casual workforces have been given a guided tour of new legislative filters for assessing whether proposed deals are genuinely agreed, in a FWC decision focussing on the Fair Work Act's "employed at the time" provision.
The FWC has refused to separate an NBN engineer involved in a dispute over allegedly unpaid hours from a manager held to have bullied him, instead ordering mediation after finding his own behaviour and "pedantic" approach is contributing to his problems.
