A FWC full bench has decided to park its consideration of whether to bring forward the trigger for consultations in model agreement clauses after employers expressed "alarm" at the prospect of requiring it when proposing to introduce a major change rather than when they make a "definite decision".
An employer has clawed back just a fraction of costs it incurred in defending a "weak" and unreasonable unfair dismissal case after the FWC questioned why it needed lawyers to face off against a self-represented trainee nurse who "was not a formidable opponent".
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a Qube worker despite finding she was treated less favourably than two colleagues over a safety incident causing 20 train wagons to roll away, but it has suggested the employer "revisit" potentially disciplining the exonerated pair.
In a decision emphasising the importance of independent medical examinations, the FWC has found it was unfair to dismiss a cold storage worker over an inability to endure sub-zero temperatures without first heeding his doctor's advice to trial a reduced workload.
The FWO has launched a court case seeking penalties against former CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch secretary John Setka and the union for allegedly attempting to coerce the AFL into sacking its head of umpiring, former ABCC commissioner Steve McBurney.
The High Court will next month begin hearing mining giant Peabody's challenge to a full Federal Court finding that it did not genuinely make workers redundant when it failed to consider whether it could redeploy workers to jobs performed by contractors.
An accounts manager seeking a month-long extension to lodge an unfair dismissal claim after initially filing a blank form has failed to convince the FWC it was exceptional that she missed the FWC's replies as they landed in her junk mail.
The FAAA says an "in-principle" agreement with Qantas to pay on-hire cabin crew the same as their directly engaged colleagues will be "life changing", but while the Flying Kangaroo has committed to backpaying the difference to November last year it is apparently unable to indicate when it might hit workers' pockets.
A customer service operator's "pregnancy brain" contributed to her filing a late application contesting her redundancy and was among the factors justifying an extension, the FWC has found.
