A judge has flagged compensation of more than $600,000 for a former St Vincent de Paul Society senior manager unlawfully sacked following a "sham" HR probe, but declined to award more after finding she misled the court and exaggerated her incapacity.
A FWC full bench has upheld the reinstatement of a senior academic dismissed for sending "intimate and romantic" messages to a PhD student he supervised.
Electors perceived as "Trump-like" the Dutton Opposition's plans to axe 40,000 public sector jobs and scrap work from home for federal public servants, with the WFH policy fuelling views that the Liberals were "unsympathetic to the needs of women", according to a damning review of the Liberal Party's 2025 federal election campaign.
Working from home arrangements have been a big success in the Australian Public Service, with a mere handful of disputes about flexible work requests, the CPSU has told a Senate inquiry into a bill aimed at enshrining WFH rights.
The FWC has ruled that a Civmec electrical engineer who rejected an alternative role has no entitlement to a redundancy payment, finding the employer adequately explained its offer despite its "clumsy and at times misguided" approach.
In a default judgment, a federal court has ordered the UAE consulate to pay an Australian worker almost $205,000 in penalties, compensation, interest and costs for s-x discrimination and adverse action, after her employer forced her to br-astfeed in a storeroom, store her milk in a suitcase filled with ice, and denied her unpaid parental leave, before dismissing her.
The FWC has made tart observations about relying on no-win, no-fee lawyers and agents in refusing to extend time by seven months for a worker allegedly unfairly sacked for disclosing a medicinal cannabis prescription for pain relief.
Universities should be required to set targets and report on measures to boost diversity in leadership and governance roles, with "cultural load" allowances also recommended, in a major AHRC study revealing one in five academic staff have suffered direct racism.
Employers should be required to consider compensating or giving additional leave to workers who are unable to work from home, to offset savings remote workers make on commuting costs, a police union has told the inquiry into the Greens' WFH Bill.
The FWC has awarded more than $30,000 compensation to a "frazzled" truck driver sacked after admitting to smoking a joint a few days before returning a positive roadside test result.
