A judge has slapped an $8000 penalty on a major Commonwealth department after expressing astonishment that it does not have a "human or technological" system in place to ensure it pays dismissed employees their correct entitlements.
The High Court has unanimously rejected mining giant Peabody's challenge to a finding that it failed to satisfy workplace laws governing redundancies when not properly considering alternative roles for 22 workers dismissed in 2020, ruling that the FWC was within its rights to delve into options like replacing already-engaged contractors.
The FWC has slashed the redundancy payout owing to a university facilities manager who turned down an alternative role encouraging weekend work to take up a higher paying position with fresh opportunities.
The FWC has refused to reduce a worker's 16-week redundancy payment after finding that when it comes to determining whether an employer has offered "other acceptable employment", assisting with identifying alternatives "falls short" of procuring a new role.
The FWC has slashed a long-serving worker's redundancy payment from 12 weeks to six, after finding that he unreasonably declined a job offer with additional benefits that compensated for a longer commute to a location he derided as a "sh-thole".
The FWC has cleared the way for a project manager to pursue his unfair dismissal claim after finding his retention payments do not push him above the high-income threshold as they are not "earnings".
In a genuine redundancy ruling, the FWC has confirmed that it simply needs to consider whether employers have notified a retrenchment in writing, rather than whether they have provided notice in "the most optimum manner".
Drawing on limited legislative guidance and case law on instalment payments, the FWC has ordered an employer to split a $30,000 compensation payment over two months rather than the 12 it sought, finding the worker entitled to the "fruits" of his claim "in a timely manner".
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.
A listed gold producer has succeeded in halving a mine caretaker's redundancy pay after the FWC found that it trimmed the "uncomfortable" responsibilities in a proposed alternative role to the point where it almost mirrored his existing job.
