Former Australian Law Council president, barrister Arthur Moses SC, has attempted to offer employers some clarity on whether they can mandate worker vaccinations by highlighting a recent FWC case he describes as "highly instructive" when considering how to approach what he concedes is a difficult question.
A decision by NSW Trains to discipline a manager by shaving almost 10% off his annual pay constituted a dismissal even though he remains in the job and such action is allowed by its agreement and governing regulations, the FWC has held.
In a decision said to have "massively" raised the bar on compensation amounts, Queensland's Industrial Court has boosted a "manifestly inadequate" $50,000 payout to nearly $160,000 for a casual laundry worker who faced demands for s-x in return for work.
The FWC has redrawn an employer's "line in the sand" over the use of mobile phones while driving forklifts, ordering it to reinstate and compensate a worker after concluding he was harshly sacked for a first safety policy breach.
A senior FWC member has decided to forge ahead and determine whether a "deactivated" Uber driver is an employee, rejecting a bid to stay his unfair dismissal claim until the Federal Court tackles the question in a case he is pursuing with the Rideshare Driver Network.
A senior FWC member has in awarding costs against a law firm queried its "irreconcilable" explanations for missing filing deadlines in an unfair dismissal case.
The High Court's Rossato judgment is already having a knock-on effect, with a FWC full bench questioning its effect on Deliveroo's appeal of a finding that a rider was an employee and proposing not to determine it until the High Court decides two more cases.
A Coalition-dominated Senate inquiry has backed the FWC's request to delay implementing proposed extensions to its anti-sexual-harassment jurisdiction, but declined to support Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins' call to include her "positive duty" recommendation in the Morrison Government's Respect at Work legislation.
A tribunal has ordered a restaurant manager accused of drugging and raping a bartender to pay aggravated and other damages of $150,000, after leaving the vulnerable international student too traumatised to keep working in the hospitality sector.
The FWC has ordered indemnity costs against a financial advisor held to have pursued a "meritless" unfair dismissal application nine months after resigning and a vexatious appeal because he believed his former employer was backing out of a separation deal.
