Unprotected industrial action undermines collective negotiations because it is "directly contrary" to the Fair Work Act's bargaining regime, Deputy President Gerard Boyce has held in his reasons for finding the UWU's "unlawful" picketing of Woolworths distribution centres breached its good faith bargaining obligations.
The FWC has refused an employer's application to stop allegedly unprotected action, finding that two off-duty employees' distribution of campaign materials did not amount to industrial action because it did not alter their performance of work, or disrupt other workers.
The FWO has further tightened the screws on franchisors after the Federal Court agreed that it fell to Bakers Delight to disprove that it is liable for half of a liquidated franchisee's alleged underpayments of more than $1.2 million.
A full Federal Court has dismissed a National Rugby League referee's claim that the game wrongly denied him an opportunity to pursue his dismissal dispute because his employment ended at the conclusion of an "outer limits" contract.
In a decision tackling an overlooked need to issue protected action ballot orders reflecting a shift to multi-employer bargaining at Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, the FWC has chastised the employers for seeking an additional technical step serving "no purpose" other than to bring about a delay.
A court has found no basis for sidelining a lawyer accused of gaslighting a former Workpac employee who claims she lost her placement at Rio Tinto for reporting a colleague's s-xual assault, when her duties involved addressing findings from a s-xual harassment inquiry and a report by former S-x Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick.
BHP and Rio Tinto are facing class actions accusing them of failing to protect women who worked for them and their contractors against sexual assault, discrimination and harassment over the past 20 years.
The Federal Court has approved a $19.25 million settlement to an underpayments class action targeting Justin Hemmes' Merivale, boosted from an earlier agreed sum of $18 million.
A FWC full bench has approved a landmark multi-employer supported bargaining agreement covering more than 60 employers in the early childhood education and care sector, putting more than 12,000 employees in line for a 15% pay rise over two years.
UPDATED A High Court majority has clarified that a 115-year-old UK House of Lords decision does not bar the recovery of damages for botched sackings, restoring the award of $1.44 million to a consultant unable to work since his "sham" dismissal in 2015.
