Thomas Costa says his first priority as the new leader of Unions NSW will be campaigning against One Nation's "anti-worker" and "incredibly offensive" policies in the lead-up to the State election in March next year.
The Minns Government has appointed barrister and Discrimination Law and Practice co-author Bronwyn Byrnes to the NSW IRC, saying she will help manage an anticipated workload increase driven by bullying, harassment and workers compensation reforms.
The NSW Industrial Court has found that a worker who started out as a "volunteer trainee" had been an employee and should have been paid, because he worked regularly and "meaningfully contributed" to the business.
A NSW IRC full bench has upheld a ruling that a sacked interpreter breached a Commission practice note by failing to seek leave to file AI-generated material that then turned out to be inaccurate, warning that unrepresented applicants cannot expect leniency after such transgressions.
The NSW IRC has welcomed a new member who "literally wrote the book" on IR laws covering owner-drivers and certain gig workers in the State's road transport sector.
A workplace racial vilification complaint has failed because it did not meet the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act's requirement that it involve a "public act", in a ruling that also found the self-represented employee a dishonest witness because of his reliance on artificial intelligence to prepare and run his case.
After NSW IRC President Ingmar Taylor recently confessed he is "somewhat evangelical" about the efficiencies of paperless hearings and suggested they will become the norm across all courts and tribunals, he has now issued a practice note for fully-electronic proceedings.
Labor has softened its position on a single national system for regulation of labour hire, in the draft policy platform adopted at last week's national conference in Adelaide.
The NSW Minns Government has further bolstered the state's Industrial Relations Commission, appointing former director of public prosecutions Lloyd Babb SC as a deputy president and judicial member.
Employers in NSW must now implement a systematic process to identify psychosocial hazards, assess risks, implement controls and review their effectiveness, with laws taking effect that elevate the state's WHS codes of practice to legally enforceable minimum standards.
