In rejecting as "absurd" the expert evidence of a forensic accountant who calculated that Ambulance Victoria owed an on-call media officer $800,000 in unpaid entitlements, the Federal Circuit Court has instead ordered the employer to pay her $155,000, including for time spent sleeping.
In a significant decision on the FWC's power to deal with clashes between agreements and state laws, a tribunal member has found that jurisdiction was established by a combination of health and safety considerations and the absence of legislative reference to exclusive arbitrators.
An underpaying employer has spent a night in prison before winning a stay on a 12-month jail term imposed for defying a court order that froze his assets.
Bench says employer's "bland" description no help to BOOT assessment; FWC takes chainsaw to gardener's sacking; and Tribunal rejects bid to require witness to appear in person.
Uber has repelled another attempt to establish that it is an employer, despite the FWC finding that a driver's relationship with the ride-sharing business was of "some magnitude".
In a significant addition to the jurisprudence around "arrangements" between transferring businesses, the FWC has rejected union arguments that the urgent use of an old employer's pathology equipment after a midnight handover should lead to continuing employees being retained on their existing, more generous enterprise agreement.
In upholding the dismissal on medical grounds of a prison officer who was later declared fit, the FWC has noted his union gained permission to obtain a second opinion but also assisted him in making an ill-fated decision not to pursue it until after his termination.
An FWC full bench has reserved its decision in a case that looms as a significant test of what constitutes a new activity for the purposes of making a greenfields agreement.
One of the CFMMEU's most pugnacious leaders has been described before the FWC as performing a "fairly administrative sort of role" as the union fends off ABCC arguments his entry permit shouldn't be renewed on the basis that he oversees a culture of lawlessness.
