The Turnbull Government has given Fair Work Commission Vice President Michael Lawler until March 4 to respond to the findings from the Heerey investigation into complaints against him.
Almost 2500 Dick Smith Electronics employees will lose their jobs, after the company's receivers announced this afternoon that they will close 301 stores in Australia after failing to find a buyer.
The Federal Circuit Court has ruled a union does not need to name individual affected employees nor demonstrate they are members to seek penalties against an employer for allegedly threatening adverse action against workers who exercise a workplace right.
Unions have failed to convince an FWC full bench that retailer Aldi should have made a greenfields agreement for its new distribution centre and stores in Regency Park, South Australia, rather than the single agreement voted up by 15 existing employees who had expressed an interest in transferring.
The Opposition has given notice that it will introduce a Private Member's Bill that would trigger a crackdown on underpayments, sham contracting and exploitation of temporary visa workers.
Just 1% of national system employers received formal requests for flexible working arrangements over the past three years and 40% received informal requests, but they only flatly rejected about 1% of the total, according to a report prepared by FWC general manager Bernadette O'Neill.
The summary dismissal of a worker who returned a positive drug result lacked procedural fairness but this was mitigated by the employer's need to ensure a safe workplace, the FWC has ruled.
Pharmacists in two states have held a protected one-hour strike over stalled enterprise bargaining in what is believed to be the first stopwork by the profession in Australia.
