The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has increased a damages payout to a casual marine researcher who lost his job at a Queensland university after a government agency disclosed to a News Corp publication that he had been caught and fined for fishing in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
The FWC has found two companies had valid reasons for dismissing male workers who verbally abused female colleagues, but in one case it did not justify going the further step of summarily sacking the long-serving employee from a workplace that tolerated the "F bomb".
A director who appears to be operating a "phoenix" labour hire company and his former HR manager have been penalised $25,000 for their knowing involvement in unlawfully deducting $130,000 from the wages of 102 Crown Casino and Federation Square cleaners and providing false records to the FWO.
An FWC full bench has expressed "grave reservations" about a member's assessment of compensation for a dismissed worker, in a case that illustrates the limits to the assistance the tribunal can extend to self-represented litigants.
Victoria's volunteer firefighters have dropped legal action in the State Supreme Court against the CFA's proposed new enterprise agreement, in the wake of the Turnbull Government pushing through changes to the Fair Work Act.
NSW PSA general secretary Anne Gardiner has been voted out after four turbulent years at the helm, with Stewart Calder-Little set to take over the role on October 28.
An FWC panel has asked whether medium term minimum wage "guidance targets" could provide the predictability of firmer targets but has acknowledged that unions might be concerned the latter will "bump up" against the legislation.
The Victorian Supreme Court took the "serious step" of imposing a representative order on individuals involved in an unlawful blockade at a Geelong oil refinery early this month, but extending it to encompass future participants would go beyond the terms of any previous such order, according to the judge in the case.
The Coalition should have sought a "more extensive mandate" on IR and run a more active campaign on the subject during the last election, rather than supplementing the ABCC and ROC bills with a "last minute minor change on CFA volunteers", according to Abbott Government Employment Minister Eric Abetz.
Pauline Hanson's One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts says the party is inclined to back the ABCC and ROC bills, while it will also push for the federal government to get out of IR regulation and to beef-up the ACCC to police anti-competitive conduct by companies and unions.
