The FWC has reinstated a mineworker sacked by a Yancoal subsidiary for aggressive and threatening behaviour in which he threatened to cut a co-worker's throat, finding the dismissal harsh because of his unblemished 12-year tenure, his remorse and his PTSD.
The FWC has granted an extension for the Albanese Government, unions and employers involved in the aged care work value case to respond to 50 questions posed late last year, such as whether they agree with a provisional view not to realign rates in a way that would hand the sector's registered nurses a 35% pay increase and whether they should be moved into the aged care award.
The FWC will start consultations this month on the statement of principles to underpin the Secure Jobs Act's less "prescriptive" approach to considering whether enterprise deals have been genuinely agreed, which it is required to finalise by early June.
In finding a worker with an oral contract an independent contractor, the FWC has affirmed that the principles of Personnel Contracting apply whether the contract is written, oral or some combination and has suggested that the previously-used "multifactorial approach" didn't necessarily cause "chaos", but created "legal and commercial uncertainty".
BHP Minerals has failed to establish that almost $20,000 in education assistance it paid to a mining engineer pushed him above the high income threshold for unfair dismissal protection, after it chose not to exercise its right to recoup the payments.
The FWC will permit a security company to use telephone recordings of worker's allegedly "extremely offensive" conversations with colleagues in defending his unfair dismissal claim, finding it in line with telecommunications interception laws and surveillance clauses in his contract.
A FWC full bench has overturned the approval of the Mantle Group's Hot Wok agreement, accusing it of "deliberate manipulation of the statutory process of making enterprise agreements" and is considering referring the company's senior HR manager to the AFP for potential criminal prosecution for deliberately providing false or misleading information to the tribunal.
Wages in private sector agreements approved in the September quarter remained stuck at 2.9% a year, defying labour shortages and inflationary pressure, according to DEWR data.
The Federal Court has restrained a Federal agency from sacking an employee it accused of lying about the disciplinary action that led to her resigning from her previous APS job.
