A criminal lawyer with an "ostrich-like" attitude has failed to convince a judge to reconsider a default judgment ordering him to pay two former employees penalties, costs, long service leave and super totalling more than $70,000.
The FWC has ruled that an employer's once-yearly payments to a worker to reduce his fringe benefits tax liability are not counted as earnings, clearing the way for him to pursue an unfair dismissal claim because his remuneration is below the high-income cap.
In a decision closely examining when employees can be directed to perform extra duties, a FWC full bench has ruled that a maintenance worker could refuse to remotely monitor an automated gate at a gas supplier's facility.
The FWC has refused to throw out an allegedly out-of-time adverse action case, ruling a FIFO worker only learned he had been sacked when told he had been left off the list of passengers due to board a plane to the worksite.
In a decision shedding further light on whether workers should be paid if instructed to conduct COVID-19 rapid antigen tests at home or prior to a shift, the FWC has held an aged care agreement lacks any provision to pay staff for testing at a time of their choosing.
The FWC has upheld the summary sacking of a "drunk and disorderly" financial advisor who refused to be breath-tested after turning up to work with bloodshot eyes and smelling of alcohol.
The FWC has ordered the reinstatement of a firefighter who shared an image of naked women in a "sickos" Facebook group of current and former colleagues but upheld the sacking of another who posted p-rnography during his shift, in decisions slamming "tick-and-flick" training.
A Federal Court judge has speculated that he might have been "overly pessimistic" when he rejected suggestions that a FWC full bench displayed bias when sharing with parties its concerns about an already-approved agreement.
An employer took adverse action against two union delegates when it retrenched them four hours before the deadline for voluntary redundancies, a court has found.
