In a thinly-veiled shot at a tribunal colleague who used her position to criticise vaccine mandates, a senior FWC member has emphasised that it is not for the Commission to undermine the law by entertaining parties' "alternative policy preferences".
The FWC has given an energy company until tomorrow to reinstate a Queensland-based FIFO worker who proved unable to return to WA in time for his roster at the Montara offshore oilfield during the McGowan Government's rapidly-changing COVID-19 restrictions.
A senior FWC member has laid out the tribunal's arsenal for dealing with those who try to coerce or engage in disorderly or vexatious conduct after a worker accused his employer's lawyer of perjury, deception and having unclean hands in connection with "dirty deeds for the dark overlords".
The FWC has commended a young solicitor's "candour" in admitting to having fumbled the unfair dismissal application of an unvaccinated foster care worker told her temporary WFH arrangement could not be sustained.
A NSW Upper House inquiry has called for parliamentarians to reject legislation that would remove the presumption that workers in frontline industries who acquired COVID-19 did so at work, giving them speedy access to support through the workers compensation system.
Victoria's Andrews Labor Government will later this week remove its longstanding COVID-19 public health recommendation to work from home if possible, after a big drop in virus-related hospitalisations and a substantial rise in vaccination third-doses.
The FWC has found a law firm's lack of competence and "grossly unprofessional" conduct primarily to blame for the late unfair dismissal claim of a worker who breached a vaccine mandate, but it has refused to grant a one-day extension due to her role in the delay.
FWC President Iain Ross has refused to refer to a full bench "questions of law" from a health worker and a group of Virgin employees seeking declarations that it is illegal to threaten those breaching vaccine mandates with the sack and that a "non-covid injected person" is no risk.
A worker who unsuccessfully sought to take long service leave after Bulla Dairy Foods rejected medical exemption evidence from a since-suspended doctor has failed to establish it unfairly sacked him for breaching a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The Perrottet Government says it is looking at "some further recognition" of the work performed by NSW nurses and midwives without prompting other public sector wage claims above its 2.5% annual cap.
