The FWC has upheld the sacking of a long-serving Queensland Rail protection officer who took cocaine on the morning of his rostered night shift and claimed he only started using the drug to cope with the stress of a workplace investigation.
A Federal Court judge has cast doubt over a manager's $1.5 million adverse action payout in a ruling highlighting the difficulty in establishing who in large corporations ultimately makes the decision to dismiss an employee.
Rail unions are urgently seeking renewed authorisation for festive season protected action at Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, after the Federal Court last night acceded to the employers' bid to temporarily declare unlawful bans to take effect this morning.
After a 17-day strike and continued picketing on Saturday despite FWC orders, workers at four Woolworths warehouses have voted up a revised offer, with pay rises of 10.5% to 12% over three years, and safeguards to ensure the company does not use a work-speed measurement tool to automatically discipline workers.
The FWC has refused to approve a Subway franchisee's proposed deal designed to replace a zombie agreement, finding it not genuinely agreed because the employer failed to adequately explain which allowances would be absorbed into the rate of pay, and that penalty and minimum rates would freeze for the life of the agreement.
An engineer who lost a close relative in the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict was clearly offended when a manager directed him to move his desk into a project "war room", but his refusal still provided a valid reason for his dismissal, the FWC has found.
Compulsory post-PABO conferences further complicate an already onerous process, with little or no benefit, the ACTU, ANMF and CFMEU have told the review of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Act, while the Ai Group says the conferences are "often worthwhile" and can avert industrial action.
The FWC has thrown out an agreement approval application because a "show of hands" vote counted by a manager failed to ensure confidentiality, but has confirmed such ballots are permissible.
The SDA is calling on the FWC to use its powers to unilaterally amend a proposed Sephora agreement if it refuses to provide undertakings tackling an allegedly "diabolical" overtime pay freeze it contends the beauty retailer did not explain to workers.
Woolworths has today made an urgent application seeking that the FWC make orders to halt striking UWU members from "blocking access" to a Melbourne warehouse and three others in Victoria and NSW that has cost the business a claimed $50 million in sales.
