The public outcry about multi-employer bargaining during the passage of the Secure Jobs legislation was "massively overstated" in the light of the limited number of cases that have since emerged, but recent reforms might have revived single-enterprise bargaining, according to FWC President Adam Hatcher.
A blowout in FEG scheme processing times, a "human-in-the-loop" AI initiative and no gender pay gap among its employees are among the highlights of DEWR's latest annual report, tabled last week.
The FWC will in about two weeks begin its pilot of a system to screen paid agents before they appear in conciliations, conferences or hearings, its national practice leader for unfair dismissal and general protections cases told a public consultation this week
The Federal Government should consider strengthening court powers to deal with competing class actions and extending existing case management protocols to union or FWO claims, a lawyer says in a paper presented at the Australian Labour Law Conference today.
In a breakthrough for NSW fisheries officers seeking to carry capsicum spray while patrolling for poachers, the State IRC has refused to terminate work bans after the Department of Primary Industries failed to convince it they seriously risk depleting fish stocks.
The FWC has declined to issue cost orders against two drone operators who "without reasonable cause" used the forum to pursue anti-bullying orders against airspace regulators, but warned them they might not be so fortunate again should they ever choose to make similar applications.
The FWO issued a caution to DEWR in September for its self-disclosed $243,000 underpayment of about 200 employees, it has told a Senate Estimates hearing.
Lawyers involved in "wage theft" class actions on behalf of thousands of junior doctors says Victorian public health services might face tens of millions of dollars in fines after a court found one of them "expressly and brazenly" instructed trainees to perform unpaid overtime.
The ETU's hard-fought campaigns for new deals with two NSW electricity suppliers have moved closer to FWC-arbitrated resolutions after the union and Endeavour Energy received a fortnight to hammer out their differences and state secretary Allen Hicks expressed hope that a Commission full bench would make an intractable bargaining determination for Transgrid "by early next year".
The Australian Federal Police has set up a special operation to investigate allegations of criminal conduct in the construction industry and the CFMEU, and already has one new "priority" probe underway, after a July referral from then Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke.
