Australia could consider adopting a Kiwi-style statutory good faith obligation after the High Court's finding that there is no implied duty of mutual trust and confidence in employment contracts, according to a senior law academic.
An FWC full bench has emphasised that the tribunal should take a "global" rather than "line by line" approach when applying the better off overall test to agreements, while in another ruling the Commission has approved a deal with employer undertakings, despite union misgivings that it was originally voted up by only three employees who have since left the company.
BHP Billiton has nominated the Coalition's right of entry and greenfields amendments, stalled in the Senate, as its first priorities for IR change, telling the Productivity Commission it also wants restrictions on agreement content, faster relief from industrial action and a wound-back adverse action regime.
An "inequity or disparity would exist" if a major public transport company has to rely on HR practitioners with scant experience in the industrial tribunal to defend an unfair dismissal against a seasoned TWU advocate, the FWC has ruled. Meanwhile, the NSW Law Society, in a submission to the Productivity Commission, is seeking an automatic right to legal representation.
The Department of Employment has crunched the numbers on Australia's 122 modern awards, finding that just half provide for weekend penalty loadings, and 26 rule them out.
The CFMEU has failed in a Federal Court bid to be joined to a case before the Fair Work Commission that could test whether employees can be directed to be examined by employer-nominated doctors.
The FWC has refused to issue a new entry permit to an AMWU organiser who engaged in "egregious" conduct during the notorious Westgate Bridge dispute in 2009, and has described as "baffling" a 2011 decision to grant him a permit.
In a case set aside until the High Court ruled on the Mammoet accommodation dispute, the Fair Work Commission has found that coal mining workers should have been paid their safety and production allowance while they were taking protected action during a bargaining battle.
The NSW Public Service Association says its axing of an assistant secretary position has boosted its war chest to fight the state government's electricity privatisation plans.
The Fair Work Commission has dismissed the unfair dismissal claims of two highly-paid managers because their allowances elevated their remuneration beyond the high income threshold.
