In the first real IR test of the post-July 1 Senate's precarious balance of power, Palmer United Party senators voted with their Coalition colleagues last night to preserve, by one vote, the rights of the WA government and third parties to ask the Fair Work Commission to terminate damaging industrial action.
Employees are not entitled to bring a support person to a meeting to investigate a workplace incident that might result in dismissal, a FWC full bench has ruled in overturning the reinstatement of a long-serving forklift driver.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has upheld a decision to refuse a Queensland building union official an entry permit, while a senior member has stayed the suspension of permits for 12 other officers.
In two separate decisions, the Fair Work Commission has ruled that it has the power to arbitrate on the use of mobile phones at BHP Coal's Bowen Basin mines and that a tram driver was unfairly sacked after being accused of using his phone while on the road.
A Toll employee who intimidated a drug and alcohol testing technician and maintained he was medically unfit to attend meetings with management about his behaviour was validly dismissed, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A maths teacher employed as a casual for one month is suing the public school's principal and his supervisor for defamation after they assessed him – using a pro forma departmental form - as suitable only for limited casual teaching roles.
Anti-bullying order restricts worker's exercise regime; Adult retail worker pay rates to stay; ILO challenge to Tasmanian IR legislation; and Federal government pilots new training programs.
A major IT company had a valid reason to sack a project manager who wrongly claimed overnight expenses on 141 occasions over less than 12 months, but his dismissal was unfair given his long and otherwise unblemished service and the long delay in investigating the misconduct, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The Federal Court has fined the HSU and three former Victorian officials a total of nearly $68,000 for financial governance irregularities, and, in a first under registered organisations legislation, ordered one of them to repay the union more than $26,000.
