An eminent UK academic says employers are stepping up their attack on an internationally-recognised right to strike, with unions responding by pushing for the issue to be resolved once and for all by the International Court of Justice.
A Fair Work Commission member denied an employer procedural fairness when he allowed a self-represented unfair dismissal applicant to escape cross examination by giving unsworn evidence from the bar table, a full bench has ruled.
FWC Vice President Adam Hatcher will head up a full bench to deal with the ACTU's wide-ranging casual and part-time employment claims, as well as proposed employer variations, after Commission president Iain Ross accepted they were "common issues" across the modern awards that the tribunal is reviewing after four years of operation.
The FWC has again refused to suppress the names of an employer and workers facing allegations of bullying, finding that the principle of open justice meant it shouldn't make confidentiality orders.
A confectionery company's direction to its production workers to shift their jobs 34km across Sydney's southern suburbs breached their rights under their enterprise agreements and employment contracts, a FWC full bench has ruled today.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a "start up" business making with a small group of workers an enterprise agreement that will later cover a much larger number and a wider range of jobs, but it will need to pass the "better off overall test" for those future employees as well as the existing ones, a FWC full bench has confirmed.
Coles Supermarkets, which is in the midst of bargaining for a new agreement, is expected to oppose a TWU bid in the FWC next week to gain orders to force the retailer to make a separate national agreement for a group of workers in its Coles Online business.
The Federal Circuit Court has drawn a link between s-xual assault laws and the Fair Work Act's sham contracting prohibitions in finding that a floor repairing business was not "reckless" as to whether five of its independent contractors were actually employees.
The NSW Supreme Court has ruled that the ANZ Bank did not need to prove that an executive leaked a doctored email to the media before sacking him without notice, only that it had formed the "opinion" that he had.
Former HSU leader Craig Thomson has been warned that his three-month jail sentence could be extended if he fails in his appeal against convictions for 65 counts of theft and obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
