The case billed as the first substantive test of the FWC's new gig economy unfair contracts powers has been quietly binned, after a self-represented Uber driver discontinued it earlier this month.
As a leading employer-clientele lawyer hosed down fears about WFH "chaos" in the wake of the recent Chandler decision, the Greens have introduced legislation giving employees the right to work remotely for at least two days a week unless fulfilling their roles is "impractical or impossible".
A FWC full bench has today rejected a bid by BHP Coal and its OS entities to issue highly-specific, restrictive orders to give effect to July's landmark same-job, same-pay decision for the resource giant's Bowen Basin coal mines, warning that the proposed descriptions of those covered could undermine the scheme's purpose and be "swiftly evaded".
An Uber driver who varied his schedule slightly but worked every weekend until he filed his unfair deactivation claim clearly demonstrated "some form of repetitive pattern" and performed work "on a regular basis", the FWC has ruled.
An Amazon Flex driver's late bid to challenge his deactivation for entering a home can proceed after a FWC full bench weighed the gig company's "confusing and ambiguous" communications and the driver's personal circumstances that included suicidal ideation and a sick wife.
Employers and unions are urging the FWC in its self-initiated test case to insert WFH provisions in the clerks award, but are starkly divided on whether workers should have a right to request, while academics back extending it to all – with protections – to boost equity.
In a case highlighting the "obvious danger" of relying on artificial intelligence for legal advice, the FWC has refused to extend time for a "hopeless" 900-day late dismissal challenge written by and filed on the suggestion of ChatGPT.
The Albanese Government should collaborate with business groups and unions to establish an independent digital and AI transition body charged with preventing workers being left behind, according to a Jobs and Skills Australia report suggesting the changes are more likely to "augment" jobs than take them over.
A labour law academic says there is a need to ask how Australia's IR system is so "fundamentally broken" that it incentivises the conduct evident in Qantas's decision to unlawfully outsource jobs to avoid bargaining, in circumstances where the record $90 million fine imposed yesterday will barely dent its resultant annual savings.
The FWC is inviting quick submissions in its crucial work from home test case ahead of a directions hearing pushed back to September 5, after providing data underpinning WFH research criticised by the Australian Industry Group, while Victoria is consulting on WFH legislation to be introduced next year.
