An employer's request for a medical certificate demonstrating a senior manager's fitness for work after an extended absence would have been unlawful and unreasonable if his contract had not required him to participate in medical examinations.
A spurned TWU delegate found to have aired false bullying allegations against a co-delegate during a meeting at which he referred to him as "kid" and told him to put his "b-lls on the line" by holding a vote has lost his unfair dismissal case, despite his employer's procedural failings.
In a significant decision on the ambit of intractable bargaining determinations, a FWC full bench has found it has the power to require employers to backpay former workers.
The FWC has refused to order the UWU to stop picketing that has allegedly blocked access to a major baking supplier's manufacturing facility, finding that it had not impeded bargaining and that the employer produced no evidence of its economic impact.
A FWC bench has emphasised the tribunal's need to properly scrutinise proposed agreements in finding that a senior tribunal member failed to follow principles of open justice when refusing to provide a union with the names of applicants for a mining services deal ultimately found to be a sham.
A retrenched educator who rejected an alternative role because she wanted to keep working from home at least a day a week has lost her severance entitlements, after the FWC found she did not have a formal right to maintain her flexible arrangements.
The SDA has entered into a heads of agreement with the Adelaide-based operator of 20 regional Foodland and IGA supermarkets to potentially settle a class action it values at $4 million on behalf of hundreds of workers.
Employers with significant casual workforces have been given a guided tour of new legislative filters for assessing whether proposed deals are genuinely agreed, in a FWC decision focussing on the Fair Work Act's "employed at the time" provision.
The FWC has refused to separate an NBN engineer involved in a dispute over allegedly unpaid hours from a manager held to have bullied him, instead ordering mediation after finding his own behaviour and "pedantic" approach is contributing to his problems.
CFMEU national leader Zach Smith is stepping back from his role as secretary of the under-administration construction division to focus on its Victorian branch, stating that while he is "willing to take responsibility for decisions I make", he "cannot be asked to take responsibility for decisions" that are not his.
