Victoria's nation-first pilot scheme providing paid sick leave to casual and contract workers in selected industries has paid out more than one million hours of leave at a cost of more than $22 million in the past year, but unenthusiastic employers ensure its future remains cloudy despite evidence it reduced workplace illnesses.
An employer alleging a "rogue" HR contractor's misconduct robbed it of a chance to defend a supervisor's unfair dismissal claim has failed to convince the FWC to revoke a decision that left it with a $34,000 compensation bill.
"Similarities" with the case of a worker awarded compensation after being shown the door for missing a COVID-19 vaccination deadline have not been enough to persuade the FWC that a public utility unfairly dismissed an employee when it denied him a chance to wait for a Novavax jab.
As Telstra next week prepares to defend a Federal Court class action on behalf of employees who refused to comply with its COVID-19 vaccination policy, the FWC has held that it met consultation requirements and "bent over backwards" to ensure fairness before sacking a worker with a moral objection to being jabbed.
A big employer's failure to give union representatives a "heads up" that it would impose a vaccination mandate did not necessarily render its subsequent dismissal of 25 workers unfair, the FWC has found.
The FWC has found that a Boeing subsidiary unfairly dismissed an unvaccinated worker because it should first have completed its consideration of whether it could redeploy him.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in record numbers of people working from home, but the latest Hilda Survey suggests the period might not serve as a reliable indicator of productivity and job satisfaction levels for those who are not forced into it.
A FWC commissioner has recused himself from hearing a vax-hesitant university worker's dispute after accepting that views he expressed during unsuccessful conciliation raised doubts about his impartiality.
A Victorian government youth justice worker sacked for not having further COVID-19 vaccination shots after reacting adversely to his first dose has won compensation, the FWC finding the department should have explored redeployment and reasonable adjustments.
The FWC has resisted speculating about whether an unvaccinated FIFO worker lost his job for refusing to "steal" a competitor's new product from a BHP mine site, but has nevertheless ordered his former employer to pay compensation after finding he could have been redeployed to its Perth workshop.
