A café owner who kissed a married 23-year-old employee on the mouth as she washed dishes has been ordered to pay $90,000 in damages and penalties, in the first concluded workplace s-xual harassment case under 2023 amendments to the Fair Work Act.
The scope of "same-job, same-pay" orders should replicate the host deal's, according to an employment and IR barrister who is urging the Albanese Government to plug a "leaking bucket", following a full court finding that the FWC should have confined its orders to a more limited cohort of on-hire workers at a Hunter Valley coal mine.
Queensland's Crisafulli Government has launched a review of the State's IR and workers' compensation legislation, focusing on "restoring productivity to Queensland worksites", the near-doubling of psychological claims in the last five years and public sector bargaining.
Three UWU organisers accused of running a "shadow campaign" over bargaining have withdrawn their unfair dismissal claims after reaching financial settlements with the union.
A senior FWC member has told an employer he would "welcome" a costs application after rejecting an AI-assisted general protections bid in which a worker relied on "incoherent" legal arguments and falsehoods to reframe his resignation as a constructive dismissal.
FWC-ordered minimum wage increases play a "critical role" in "reducing entrenched, intersectional wage inequality" for Aboriginal workers, who are more likely to be award-reliant, the Centre for Indigenous People and Work says in what is likely the first annual wage review submission to focus solely on First Nations workers.
The Albanese Government has again kept its election promise to urge the FWC's Annual Wage Review bench to order real wage increases for award-reliant and minimum wage workers that keep pace with the cost of living.
The prospect of the first lawful strikes in more than 25 years at BHP's Iron Ore mines has moved closer, after ETU members on a crucial Pilbara power network voted up a protected action ballot.
Peak employer body ACCI will seek a 3.5% rise in the Annual Wage Review 2026 after chief executive Andrew McKellar described the ACTU's 5% claim as "self-defeating".
