In a significant decision on the nature of work, the FWC has found that the nursing home at the centre of one of Queensland's deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks should have paid employees for the time spent taking rapid antigen tests before the start of their shifts.
A senior FWC member has described a public transport agency's vaccination policy as "pressur[ing]" workers to "give up [the] fundamental right" to bodily integrity, before ordering it to pay five train drivers sidelined because of their non-compliance.
The FWC has found that a worker sacked by the Ubuntu Church for obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination is an employee, clearing the way for her to pursue an unfair dismissal claim.
The FWC has endorsed the consultation process Woolworths used before it rolled-out a group-wide COVID-19 vaccination policy, rejecting a "most unusual" unfair dismissal case in which a worker's social media sprays clashed with his claims that the company left him in the dark.
A senior FWC member has refused to recuse himself for addressing a worker's representative as "mister" in an unfair dismissal case that argued an employer should have permitted an unvaccinated employee to keep working from home during COVID-19 restrictions instead of sacking her.
The FWC has tossed out an unfair dismissal claim from a government lawyer responsible for overseeing safe workplaces, finding he fully understood the seriousness of "wilfully and persistently" refusing to confirm his COVID-19 vaccination status.
In a detailed examination of a major government department's early response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Court has rejected union claims that a hastily-conceived working from home policy breached existing arrangements and consultation requirements.
The FWC has reinstated a firefighter who refused to provide proof of his COVID-19 vaccination status while on leave, observing that his employer failed to properly read a response indicating he was inoculated before taking a "well-worn disciplinary path" towards dismissal.
The FWC has held that resource giant South32 unfairly treated some workers it directed to isolate and get tested after identifying them as COVID-19 contacts, ordering it to recredit annual leave, deduct sick leave and pay them for other times as though they were at work.
A senior FWC member has lambasted an "incompetent" and "belligerent" representative involved in numerous challenges to vaccination-related dismissals, bemoaning that a regulatory gap prevented him from awarding costs against the offending individual.
