The FWC has been taken into the heart of policy-making at one of the COVID-19 pandemic's most vulnerable working environments in declining to reinstate a vaccine-hesitant midwife sacked by Australia's largest private hospital operator.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a worker for telling a colleague during an argument that "I'll f-ck you in the a-se", finding that the choice of words went "far beyond" simply swearing in the workplace and constituted s-xual harassment.
The FWC has compensated an employee sacked for threatening a co-worker, finding that his employer failed to act on his prior complaints about the colleague "wanting to fight me in [the] yard".
Victoria's labour hire watchdog has filed its first case against a business for allegedly providing on-hire fruit and vegetable pickers without a licence, an offence that carries maximum penalties of almost $600,000 for companies and $150,000 for individuals.
In a close analysis of what constitutes regular and systematic employment, a senior FWC member has held that a casual trolley collector met the minimum service period to allow him to pursue Bunnings for unfair dismissal, despite "unpredictable" shifts and a contract expressly stating he should not expect ongoing work or guaranteed hours.
In a case expanding the circumstances under which the FWC will not publish a finding, the tribunal has rejected union arguments that it should release its decision so as to potentially "clear the name" of a former BHP worker who committed suicide after hearings into his unfair dismissal claim were completed.
A court has upped from $20,000 to $90,000 the general damages payout for a veteran chief accountant subjected to age discrimination and is considering billing his former employer a further $142,000 for economic loss, after hearing he is "no longer the same man" and is unable to work.
An employer has failed to establish that it genuinely made a software engineer redundant, in part because it should have offered her a lower-paying job available at a related entity in India.
The Albanese Government has appointed its secretary for public sector reform, Gordon de Brouwer, as the new Australian Public Service Commissioner, as the federal public sector prepares for a return to centralised bargaining.
The FWC will provide a tribunal member to help Apple, the SDA, the ASU, RAFFWU and well over 100 individual bargaining representatives negotiate a new deal, after observing the dynamic and an ineffective process is causing "logistical issues" as they pursue about 500 claims.
