Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has warned that the prescriptive amendments sought by business and employer groups to the Secure Jobs Bill's multi-employer stream could render it as "ineffective and unusable" as the 13-year old Act's low paid bargaining stream, which hasn't been used since 2014 because parties "gave up on it".
BHP Coal is facing penalties and compensation payments for unlawfully "demobilising" a labour hire truck driver shortly after she refused to dump a load in a poorly-lit area, while it is also accused of "sophistry" in arguing that she had not properly addressed its potential motives.
A senior FWC member has described a public transport agency's vaccination policy as "pressur[ing]" workers to "give up [the] fundamental right" to bodily integrity, before ordering it to pay five train drivers sidelined because of their non-compliance.
A Federal Court judge has while fining a franchisor almost $500,000 for deliberately underpaying Taiwanese interns speculated that a recent High Court ruling will impel more parties to agree on penalties rather than go to trial, an "unfortunate by-product" being fewer judgments offering "yardsticks" for future cases.
The FWC has upheld the demotion of a Catholic school teacher who continually undermined the schools' leadership before maintaining that his "only master was God".
While the Albanese Government remains hopeful it can make multi-employer bargaining changes more palatable to win Senate support, a labour law expert says onerous requirements will limit the effectiveness of the expanded single-interest stream.
The Albanese Government will today table its foreshadowed amendments to the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill, as it seeks to provide "more comfort" to key Independent Senator David Pocock on proposed multi-employer bargaining reforms.
The FWC has found that a worker sacked by the Ubuntu Church for obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination is an employee, clearing the way for her to pursue an unfair dismissal claim.
A tram driver whose failure to disclose his stroke "strikes at the heart of the employment relationship" has failed to establish that his employer unfairly sacked him, despite one of the employer's doctors breaching confidentiality requirements to set the record straight.
The ACTU has told a Senate inquiry into the Albanese Government's Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill that it will make it even harder for workers to take protected action, while the BCA says multi-employer bargaining should be restricted to low-paid sectors.
