The FWC has found that an engineer's "extremely insulting" WhatsApp messages about his manager, sent to colleagues on a day off, warranted his summary sacking, while nevertheless awarding him $14,000 compensation because the employer denied him a chance to explain.
Two silks with backgrounds in building and construction, criminal, administrative and public law are leading the legal team for Chris Kourakis' Royal Commission into crime and misconduct in the Victorian construction industry, ahead of its first hearing.
The FWC has held that a TAFE teacher of three years did not meet the definition of a casual employee and should be treated as a part-time worker, in the second successful casual conversion dispute ruling.
A tribunal is poised to order a council to pay more than $900,000 to a worker it discriminated against by sacking him over his inability to drive an allocated vehicle, in a decision panning a "chilling" suggestion that show cause letters formed part of consultations to identify reasonable adjustments.
A Federal Court judge has declined to recuse herself from hearing the parallel cases of a former aircraft engineer on the basis that she is a member of Qantas's Chairman's Lounge.
A FWC member has traversed recent case law during a conference at which she reminded practitioners of the "regulatory consequences" for breaching professional obligations in their use of generative artificial intelligence.
Uber's business model has withstood scrutiny in the first test under the Fair Work Act's new unfair contracts provisions to probe its use of the same "cab rank principle" that applies to barristers.
A judge has suppressed details of a criminal defence lawyer's adverse action case against the firm that recently represented alleged Bondi gunman Naveed Akram, noting that any efforts at mediation would be "imperilled" by the airing of "sensitive" allegations and medical reports.
A FWC full bench has upheld the reinstatement of a senior academic sacked for s-xual harassment, noting that while his "creepy" conduct breached the university's Appropriate Workplace Behaviour policy, he had apologised to the employee and had no further contact with her after HR intervened three years before his dismissal.
Early educators guaranteed 15% pay rise; "De-escalation" training for parliamentarians; Loxton, Stam appointed to SAET; and Technology and productivity inquiry.
