Victoria's Kourakis royal commission into the construction sector has appointed an acting assistant commissioner and already held closed hearings in order to gather confidential information, it revealed at its first official hearing today.
An employment court has found that an employer did not breach a worker's right to disconnect when it pressed her to respond to "unreasonable" out-of-hours communications that included TikTok videos about her social life, in the first ruling on the untested provisions.
FWC President Adam Hatcher has refused to stay the deregistration of one auditor and suspension of another found to fallen short in their duties to an embattled HSU branch, concluding that no weight should be given to their "desire for reputational repair" while their appeals are heard.
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll has promised business leaders he will delay the commencement of controversial work-from-home legislation by 10 months and provide more time for debate before attempting to pass it ahead of the November 28 State election.
In a significant judgment on what constitutes "automation", the Federal Court has ruled that stevedore DP World is not required to consult extensively over plans to have drivers control quayside cranes remotely, because it does not represent "a significant change to the mode of operation" under the terms of its agreement.
A council's desire to have a senior planning team member pass on his wisdom in-person provided reasonable business grounds to refuse his request to work at home for all but six days a month, the FWC has found.
A judge has fired a shot across the bow of litigants relying on "sycophantic" AI to run their cases, observing that a delivery driver alleging adverse action came "perilously close" to being held in contempt after failing to produce evidence found to be either mischaracterised or non-existent.
The FWC has endorsed AGL's grounds for rejecting a customer service consultant's flexible work request, but nevertheless ordered it to conduct a trial requiring her to attend the office for four hours on just 12 occasions over six months so she can continue to care for her incontinent, dementia-affected mother.
In a significant ruling on applications to work from home, the FWC has agreed with a multinational company's claim that its payroll officer could not devote sufficient attention to "complex" tasks while caring for two children under five.
In a sign of the FWC's growing frustration with not just the number of applications flowing across its desk but the prevalence of applicants dropping off the map, a member has lamented a worker's "disconcerting" failure to engage with the tribunal and the concomitant waste of valuable "time and resources".
