High Court rejects union challenge to Queensland IR changes; Queensland unions unite in bias claim against full bench; Newman Government ameliorates Queensland IRC "workload pressures"; and Tribunal orders football peak body to make full redundancy payout.
The Fair Work Commission is preparing for some 3,500 bullying-related applications annually under the federal government's IR bill passed by the House of Representative yesterday, while the Law Council of Australia has warned there is "real potential" for employees to use the bullying provisions to bring "unfair dismissal type proceedings".
The FWO has changed the language it uses in media releases after a Federal Court judge upbraided it over its "misleading" use of the term "prosecution", it told a Senate Estimates hearing this week.
The federal government's Fair Work Amendment Bill 2013 is through the House of Representatives with its right of entry provisions intact but with its bullying provisions delayed by six months and no expanded arbitration for greenfields bargaining or intractable disputes.
In the second ruling in six months in which FWC has upheld the dismissal of a driver for using a mobile phone while in control of a bus full of passengers, Deputy President Anna Booth has again emphasised the seriousness of the breaches of both company policy and the road rules.
A Federal Court full bench has thrown out Harmers Workplace Lawyers' chair Michael Harmer's novel third-party application to challenge a judge's comments in a sexual harassment ruling that he argued were prejudicial.
A FWC full bench has upheld the dismissal of an employee who refused to provide a urine sample for a random drug and alcohol test because he argued that a saliva sample – which he was willing to give - was more appropriate to assess impairment.
Employers will have to show they have advertised locally before they can sponsor overseas workers and Fair Work inspectors will have the power to investigate breaches of the Migration Act, under legislation put to parliament this morning.
The Fair Work Commission will approve three Aldi enterprise agreements it rejected last year because of their opt-out clauses, but only if the company provides acceptable undertakings to deal with "complex" arrangements for averaging of payments for leave.
Unions blast Newman Government's last-minute IR amendments; Parliamentary inquiry sanctions Newman Government's IR reforms; and Queensland budget profits from 2012 public sector cuts.
