A FWC member has criticised a union's "sneaky" application for a protected action ballot at one of nine interconnected workplaces as potentially "dragg[ing]" members into an industrial campaign "they did not authorise".
In a significant ruling on stand downs, a full bench has upheld a challenge to a hospital's refusal to pay a nurse who declined redeployment to another ward due to a work ban, but found on redetermination that the employer was otherwise entitled to withhold payment.
The FWC has rejected CEPU claims that Queensland Rail will use data from its new GPS-linked vehicle management system to performance-manage employees who brake harshly and accelerate or corner too rapidly.
After a FWC full bench finding that bullying must be assessed within a "spectrum of seriousness", a member has affirmed in redetermining a paramedic's challenge to a 350km transfer that his treatment of a subordinate constituted serious misconduct.
A four-member FWC full bench has formally put on hold a review of the right to disconnect provisions, due to a paucity of case law, but recent commentary by tribunal president Adam Hatcher and leading academic lawyer Andrew Stewart indicate the jury is still out on the reasons for the litigation deficit and the impacts of the reforms.
The FWC has ruled that Woodside's agreement does not prevent it sending offshore platform employees to work in Perth when a cyclone hits, but doubts remain about whether such a direction is lawful and reasonable.
The NSW Industrial Court has fined the state's nurses and midwives union $130,000 for its "flagrant and unapologetic" flouting of multiple anti-strike orders during pay negotiations with the Minns Government that have since morphed into a major gender undervaluation case.
A tribunal has ordered Queensland Health to re-run its selection process for a midwifery promotion position and remove the successful candidate from her new post, after it failed to give another front-runner a chance to respond to a referee's negative comment.
A former Queensland Office of IR principal inspector has failed to halt disciplinary action over incendiary messages he exchanged with colleagues on the Signal app over plans to close his business unit, including saying he was ready to "b-tch-flog" a female boss and use a piece of "4x2 with rusty nails".
The FWC has found a flexible working request invalid, because of its "tenuous" connection to the worker's caring responsibilities and the strain his absence would have imposed on other workers.
