The FWC has awarded more than $30,000 compensation to a "difficult" former Services Australia worker who should have been "given space" to restore his mental health before he resigned.
An employer has been ordered to provide an external investigation report to a sacked worker after the FWC found that it waived legal privilege by revealing too many details in a letter outlining the results.
A FWC presidential member has recused himself from re-hearing an agreement variation case after observing that a bystander, "recognising human frailty", might appreciate his disinclination to reach different conclusions based on the same set of facts.
The threat of a second 24-hour strike by Queensland teachers continued to hover over the state's public schools today as the Crisafulli Government again sought the Queensland IRC's help in securing a new agreement following the rejection of their "best and final" offer of an 8% pay rise over three years.
A four-day working week would simultaneously advance productivity and fairness, the head of the ALP's think tank has told the annual Ron McCallum debate, while resource sector and union panellists aligned in calling for a major refocus on skills and training.
The FWC has rejected an AMWU bid to bargain for a standalone agreement for maintenance workers at BHP's WA iron ore operations, saying any negotiation difficulties are due to the "brevity" and "paucity" of meetings and not that BHP has focused too much on its larger production worker population.
A "high-stakes" case set to test whether State workplace protections extend to independent contractors under the Fair Work Act has been set down for a three-week trial beginning in May, after Federal Court Chief Justice Debra Mortimer agreed that having enough time to assess witnesses is "critical" in such proceedings.
The FWC's approach to assessing flexible work disputes is potentially undermining workers' rights to plan ahead, an academic has warned, after the tribunal held that a Sydney Water employee could not make such a request in the lead-up to his 55th birthday, and found a father ineligible until he finalised his custody arrangement.
As a leading employer-clientele lawyer hosed down fears about WFH "chaos" in the wake of the recent Chandler decision, the Greens have introduced legislation giving employees the right to work remotely for at least two days a week unless fulfilling their roles is "impractical or impossible".
