Deliveroo's appeal against a finding that driver Diego Franco is an employee is set to be revived following today's High Court Jamsek and Personnel Contracting judgments that affirm that employment relationships are substantially defined by contractual terms.
The implications of today's High Court decisions affirming the primacy of contractual terms in determining employment relationships are "extremely concerning, perhaps even frightening" for those concerned about the integrity of the IR system, an academic says.
The High Court has affirmed the primacy of contractual terms in determining employment relationships, finding a construction worker was an employee of a labour hire company and that two truck drivers were independent contractors despite decades of exclusive service to a solitary business.
An appeal court has upheld a finding that when a drunken barrister said "suck my d-ck" to a female clerk at a late-night function, it fell short of professional misconduct that warranted penalties or counselling.
The aircraft engineers union says no employers should require proof of COVID-19 inoculations that include individual healthcare identifiers, with Virgin agreeing in consent orders to delete the material amid concerns they could be used to access medical histories for other purposes.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has recommended an independent body be established to enforce parliamentary codes of conduct after a third of staffers responding to its workplace review reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment.
The Liberal chair of a Federal Parliamentary inquiry into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workplace and the FWC has billed it as the "nation's only Inquiry into vaccine mandates".
Employers can lawfully direct almost all workers to get COVID-19 vaccinations to gain or retain their jobs, while most who cannot comply due to a disability fall short of carrying out the inherent requirements of employment, a leading IR barrister has told a labour law conference.
Academics say that while the High Court's recent Rossato judgment signals a shift to contract formalism that is likely to leave gig workers outside of labour law protections, significant developments in competition and consumer law might hold promise.
A Supreme Court judge has slapped down a FWC presidential member's "clarion call" for Australians to "vigorously" reject the notion of mandatory COVID-19 jabs, questioning her assertions about the efficacy of vaccines and declaring it is not her role to challenge the validity or appropriateness of public health orders.
