A FWC presidential member has suggested policymakers give greater consideration to recognising the "industrial qualifications" of migrant workers after ruling an employer unfairly dismissed a factory hand when it made him redundant without consultation due to his unsuccessful attempts to obtain an Australian forklift licence.
A judge has compiled a checklist for workers pursuing employers over unreasonable hours, highlighting the difficulties a product marketing manager faces in building her adverse action case without detailed evidence of workloads, deadlines and demands to complete tasks.
The FWC has cleared the way for a Philippines-based paralegal to pursue her unfair dismissal claim, finding her an employee of a Queensland law firm that paid her $12 an hour below award.
A full bench comprising the FWC's three most senior members has made same-job, same-pay orders that will increase wages for one labour supplier's workers at a Queensland meatworks by about 25% and provide "significantly higher rates" for a second supplier's workers at the same workplace.
An account manager who helped to lure 45 clients to a rival has been ordered to pay $500,000 to his former employer, after a judge highlighted the difficulty of gathering evidence in a case in which one of the manager's mobile phones surfaced after being "immersed in water" and another "met with the unhappy fate of being run over by a lawn mower".
The Fair Work Ombudsman is taking a labour hire company to court for unlawfully deducting $500 fines from migrant workers' pay when they breached its drug and alcohol policy.
After Wilmar Sugar rejected a FWC recommendation to offer a 21.33% pay rise over four years, workers at its Queensland mills have narrowly voted up a three-year deal providing a 16% increase, plus a $2500 sign-on sweetener.
A federal court has confirmed that the CFMEU's construction division is not the only industry participant deserving of scrutiny, factoring-in a builder's lack of remorse into penalties imposed for blocking a union official's attempt to check on potentially dangerous electrical boards.
A senior FWC member has highlighted a labour hire "dilemma" raising "obvious policy issues for government", while finding an employer did not dismiss a worker who alleged he had been sacked for taking medical marijuana.
