Platform companies, gig workers and unions will be able to apply to the NSW IRC for determinations on conditions and pay for the first time under legislation to be introduced by the Minns Government today, but Uber is calling for "further scrutiny".
The Albanese Government has today appointed four new FWC members with union or employee-friendly backgrounds, while indicating its "rebalancing" of the tribunal hasn't yet been achieved.
A tribunal has ordered the reinstatement of a council worker found to have had a "brain snap" when he referred to his manager in a text as a "rude c--t" he felt like punching.
A DEWR review of the procedures available for small claims of up to $100,000 recommends legislative change to enable successful applicants to win costs and an automatic exemption from filing fees in some circumstances, while it also canvasses establishing a small claims jurisdiction within the FWC or creating an industrial court.
The PSA has lost its challenge to a NSW IRC decision said to have "wide ranging" implications for union delegates using workplace emails to communicate with union lawyers, with a special constable facing dismissal for disclosing confidential information to inform its application for a new award.
NSW IRC President Ingmar Taylor says after a decade of pay caps depriving the tribunal of the capacity to ensure incomes did not fall behind in real terms, all submissions informing a review of its wage fixing principles are calling for change.
In a breakthrough for NSW fisheries officers seeking to carry capsicum spray while patrolling for poachers, the State IRC has refused to terminate work bans after the Department of Primary Industries failed to convince it they seriously risk depleting fish stocks.
NSW PSA members have voted to accept a 10% pay rise over three years plus a 1% super boost in what State Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says is "proof that a mature government" can negotiate a deal that's good for both taxpayers and workers.
Two new FWC members have invoked Jon Bon Jovi, author Frank Hardy and a former MinterEllison senior partner at a ceremony welcoming them to the tribunal, with one vowing to show respect to "sometimes angry and truculent" parties and the other recalling decades devoted to trying to help people "have a voice and get that voice heard".
