A FWC full bench has upheld the reinstatement of a Sydney Trains employee found to have traces of cocaine in his system, despite ruling that a senior member wrongly concluded that employers need to establish workers who fail drug and alcohol tests are at risk of being "impaired" before sacking them.
QCU general secretary Jacqueline King has warned ahead of the State election on Saturday that public sector pay rises of 2.5% will not be enough to avoid industrial action, regardless of who is in power, while unions are also continuing their push for a significant boost to paid parental leave entitlements.
The Federal Court has suppressed a Channel Seven producer's statement of claim and other documents lodged in connection with her general protections claim, saying that releasing details of alleged workplace behaviours would reduce the chances of achieving a mediated outcome by taking a "bargaining chip" off the table.
FWC President Adam Hatcher has moved to reassure transport industry employers that the TWU's minimum-standards test cases for gig workers and "last-mile" deliveries will not be hijacked by an advisory group set up by Workplace Relations Minister Murray Watt, promising "genuine engagement" and emphasising that the Commission retains control of the "deliberative processes".
More than 33,000 WA public sector workers are in line for a 12.5% pay increase over three years and up to 27 weeks of "more flexible" parental leave for both caregivers, as the CPSU Civil Service Association pledges to keep fighting for a four-day work week.
The FWC has made it clear that HR managers should not inform employees about company policies as a "tick and flick" exercise, finding an employer harshly sacked a worker who had no understanding of his unacceptable behaviour when he bullied a colleague for supposedly "sucking up" to their manager.
The FWC is set to convene an initial hearing next week into the CFMEU manufacturing division's application to demerge, using legislative provisions passed in July that gained new urgency after then construction division leader John Setka's threats to derail Australian Football League projects.
In a case that underlines the Commission's challenges in dealing with self-represented parties, a FWC member has refused to step back from hearing an anti-bullying claim, finding that a worker's 18 grounds for recusal, including the "unjust removal" of the worker's advocate from a hearing, had "no logical connection" with any possibility of bias.
In a warning to employers undertaking investigations of workplace complaints, the FWC has ordered a mushroom grower to compensate a former harvest team leader sacked on the basis of "scanty" hearsay evidence and the "sheer number" of allegations about bullying and racial discrimination.
A full Federal Court has found Qube Ports lacked standing to retrospectively vary expired agreements, clearing the way for the CFMEU's maritime division to pursue the stevedoring giant for millions in allegedly wrongly-deducted "gap" payments from up to 1000 wharfies' remuneration.
