In the first appeal against a Registered Organisations Commission decision, an FWC full bench has quashed the watchdog's refusal to grant a union more time to submit election information and observed that its approach to defending the case could imply "a lack of impartiality".
The ramifications of recent legislative changes requiring employers to disprove employees' records of hours worked in wage claim cases have been spelt out in a court decision imposing penalties of more than $120,000 on a company and its director for underpaying an apprentice.
The High Court has confirmed that unions are entitled to run underpayment and other contravention cases for un-named classes of employees who are eligible for membership but are not members, paving the way for a pilots union to advance an adverse action claim on behalf of Regional Express cadets.
The Victorian Supreme Court has today granted a rare representative order against VTHC secretary Luke Hilakari, ordering him not to participate in or organise a picket at a new "robo" stevedore in the Port of Melbourne.
The FWC has acceded to a request to delay an unfair dismissal hearing for two AMWU delegates sacked by Visy Board for allegedly organising unlawful overtime bans, so that they don't prejudice their position in a parallel civil penalty prosecution the company has initiated against the union, an official and 69 employees.
A manager's adverse action claim against a not-for-profit enterprise set up to create a railway tourist attraction is on track, after a court found its substantial, non-peripheral commercial activities characterised it as a trading corporation.
FWC President Iain Ross is proposing to delay starting the next four-yearly review of awards that is due to begin "as soon as practicable" after January 1, but is seeking parties' views on the issue.
Workers on "outer limits" fixed-term contracts and long-term casuals have been given more latitude to pursue unfair dismissal claims after an FWC full bench decision that brings the accepted precedent on employer-initiated terminations into line with Fair Work Act provisions.
Former Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour says he was acting out of concern for his national compensation manager's welfare rather than acceding to union demands when he sacked him and shut down his cost-saving project the same day he received a call from an "angry" union leader with whom he'd previously had hostile exchanges.
Information Commissioner Tim Pilgrim has taken into account CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch leader John Setka's threats to ABCC inspectors at a recent rally in finding it against the public interest to disclose the identities and contact details of the watchdog's personnel that the union sought under FoI provisions.
