More than half of private sector clerks included in a survey to inform a possible coronavirus-driven award variation have been working from home since the middle of last year and almost three quarters of employers intend to let them continue doing so at least some of the time.
Dairy cooperative Norco claims it sacked an HR advisor because she told colleagues its board was considering dismissing its new chief executive and warned them they were on his "hit list", rather than in retaliation for her role in probing complaints against him.
A worker sacked after allegedly masturbating at work when he claimed he was scratching a persistent rash between his pubic bone and belly button has failed to establish that his employer discriminated against him on the basis of an impairment.
In further evidence of shifting workplace standards, the chief executive of ASX-listed Cleanaway Waste has resigned after last year volunteering to forgo $2 million in performance-linked shares following complaints about his "overly assertive behaviour".
IR Minister Christian Porter says that talks will soon start with employers and unions to work through the complex legal and workplace safety issues surrounding the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
An ABC makeup artist who claims her Lyme disease makes it unsafe to wear an anti-coronavirus mask and wants to instead don a shield is suing the broadcaster for discriminatory adverse action after it allegedly removed her from its roster.
A "recidivist" Tasmanian CFMMEU official whose belligerence has cost the union almost $500,000 in fines is finally off the ABCC's hit list, after a court ruled he should personally pay a $20,000 penalty for the latest of his entry breaches, which stretch back to 2015.
After the FWC reinstated one of two truck driver TWU delegates involved in a punch-up, it has now upheld Toll's dismissal of the second driver because he lied during its investigation – a reason not relied on by the employer.
Working from home is here to stay and will be "more effective for all" if it is supported by formal policies, hours are "relatively fixed hours" and it is voluntary, according to one of two university studies commissioned by the FWC as it considers inserting a WFH clause in the clerks award.
