Legal Aid NSW is calling for the Government to implement a complete ban on restraint of trade clauses for all vulnerable workers, including independent contractors, casual, gig, and employee-like workers, and other workers should receive compensation for non-competes based on a proportion of their income.
Employers and unions have confirmed the gulf that exists over 'right to disconnect' laws that come into force today, the former lamenting a lack of FWC guidance on "reasonable" contact and forecasting "conflict and disharmony", while the latter hailed the new provisions as "reclaiming the right to knock off".
The FWC has cleared the way for the ACT Greens' former party director to challenge his sacking after rejecting the organisation's jurisdictional objection that his brief term failed to meet the statutory minimum employment period for workers at small employers.
After a hard-fought battle, a mining union has today won an authorisation to negotiate a multi-employer agreement with three underground black coal mines operated by major resource companies Peabody, Ulan and Whitehaven, but Delta has escaped its clutches.
The scheme of administration for the CFMEU's construction division and branches, in place from today, immediately dismisses most officeholders, but allows some national, WA branch and ACT branch officials to keep their jobs during Mark Irving KC's supervision of the union.
A leading IR law academic says he would not be surprised if the Albanese Government proposes a Fair Work court to operate alongside the FWC if it is returned at the next federal election, while SA Employment Tribunal President Stephen Dolphin recommends looking to the "exceptional" model in his State.
The FWC has upheld the summary dismissal of a forklift driver, after he left work to avoid a drug test, claiming that he had an "accident" in his trousers.
The ETU's refusal to acknowledge that power network operator Transgrid alone dictates when emergency work is required provided the FWC sufficient reason to extend orders preventing certain protected industrial action for a further two months, according to a senior member.
A Coles worker sacked for "interacting" with shoplifters in defiance of company policy has had her one-minute-late adverse action application binned, after the FWC rejected her bid to "pin" responsibility on the SDA, while at the same time affirming that the deadline is not a "mere technicality".
