A senior FWC member has declined to recuse himself from hearing a primary school teacher's unfair dismissal case after rejecting the suggestion that the Education Department's lawyer, formerly an intern at a regulatory body he briefly headed up, had been chosen "to achieve the evil purpose of influencing" his deliberations.
In a significant ruling on the wording of strike ballots, a FWC full bench has found that the Commission should not dictate which questions can be posed or how they are framed.
The FWC has upheld Victoria Police's rejection of a transit officer's flexibility request because it would exacerbate already "bleak" safety issues arising from understaffing in Melbourne's most crime-affected region.
Towage company Svitzer is set to lock out its harbour tugboat workforce, claiming it has been forced into it by continuing disruptive protected action by three maritime unions.
A large employer has been fined almost $100,000 after a court rejected its "bare apology" for requiring a newly-arrived migrant to work 12 extra hours a week for more than three years.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has warned that the prescriptive amendments sought by business and employer groups to the Secure Jobs Bill's multi-employer stream could render it as "ineffective and unusable" as the 13-year old Act's low paid bargaining stream, which hasn't been used since 2014 because parties "gave up on it".
BHP Coal is facing penalties and compensation payments for unlawfully "demobilising" a labour hire truck driver shortly after she refused to dump a load in a poorly-lit area, while it is also accused of "sophistry" in arguing that she had not properly addressed its potential motives.
A senior FWC member has described a public transport agency's vaccination policy as "pressur[ing]" workers to "give up [the] fundamental right" to bodily integrity, before ordering it to pay five train drivers sidelined because of their non-compliance.
The High Court is poised to consider two significant IR matters next week, beginning with NSW unions' bid to overturn a State law restricting election campaign spending, followed by Qantas seeking special leave to challenge a finding that the airline unlawfully shunned a TWU in-house tender when it outsourced the work of 2000 ground-handlers.
A stone benchtops company ordered to pay $163,000 in compensation and damages to a veteran stonemason dismissed because of his work-related silicosis must now pay him a further $76,000 in fines for unlawful and discriminatory adverse action.
