The CFMEU construction and general division's "cavalier attitude" to court orders has cost it another $125,000, with the Federal Court finding it in contempt of undertakings not to block access to a Victorian wind farm project last year.
A tribunal has found an employee's severe morning sickness is a "disability" but has rejected the bulk of her discrimination claims, including that her employer failed to make reasonable changes to her hours and conditions.
A chief executive has been awarded more than $3m after a court found that his employer's redundancy policy was incorporated into his contract of employment, but his off-sider will take home nothing after failing to prove that the policy became part of his contract as part of a "course of dealings".
The Federal Court has rejected a raft of adverse action claims — one of them involving exposure to a cat — against an aged care provider by a senior nurse eventually sacked for dispensing medicine without authorisation.
In further legal fallout from the 2012 Grocon dispute, the Federal Court has ruled that the CFMEU and eight of its officials unlawfully coerced the company to agree to its demand to employ union-nominated shop stewards when they blocked access to the Myer Emporium and McNab Avenue sites.
A full Federal Court has ruled that two housekeepers who were pushed onto Odco-style independent contractor arrangements continued to be employees after the purported conversion, but also found that their employer had not contravened the Fair Work Act's sham contracting provisions.
The head of the Fair Work Commission's anti-bullying panel has highlighted the key cases in the new jurisdiction's first year, and revealed that many employers are failing to follow their own internal procedures when dealing with bullying complaints.
Employers are likely to rely more heavily on zero tolerance drug and alcohol policies to discipline or dismiss employees, even when there is no evidence of impairment, after an important full Federal Court ruling yesterday.
The Fair Work Act's provisions for ending safety-threatening industrial action are broader than those of its predecessor, a senior FWC member has ruled in her reasons for suspending planned NSW power industry stoppages earlier this month.
