A casual Census collector has launched court action against the ABS, accusing it of unlawfully sacking her for expressing a political opinion on LinkedIn.
The pandemic-fuelled supply chain disruptions continued today with hundreds of workers at seven Toll Group warehouses beginning indefinite strikes over stalled bargaining.
A judge has cleared the way for a union to use "the last shot in [its] locker" in the form of protected industrial action after adjusting court-ordered deadlines to destroy results of a survey allegedly giving it a significant bargaining advantage.
Employers can lawfully direct almost all workers to get COVID-19 vaccinations to gain or retain their jobs, while most who cannot comply due to a disability fall short of carrying out the inherent requirements of employment, a leading IR barrister has told a labour law conference.
Academics say that while the High Court's recent Rossato judgment signals a shift to contract formalism that is likely to leave gig workers outside of labour law protections, significant developments in competition and consumer law might hold promise.
An FWC full bench has quashed a decision to compensate a union delegate unfairly sacked by Simplot a year ago and instead ordered it to reinstate him, holding a senior member weighed irrelevant considerations in deciding not to give him his job back.
The common law could play a "vital role" in securing a right to disconnect from smartphones and leave emails unanswered outside of working hours, but it requires a willing, affected worker with the means to pursue it, according to an Adelaide University academic.
A House of Representatives standing committee is set to conduct a "short, focused inquiry" into the effects of COVID-19 policy responses on the workplace and the FWC, while it is particularly keen to explore whether vaccine mandates "and demands upon staff to enforce mandates in the workforce, are likely to impact Commission caseload".
Labor's plan to give the FWC the power to deal with employee-like forms of work has been designed to avoid the deficiencies in domestic and overseas models that highly-flexible platforms have been able to readily evade, according to Shadow IR Minister Tony Burke.
An appeal board has in overturning an Indigenous eco-education officer's sacking for failing to undergo neurological tests emphasised the need for public sector employers to consider cultural factors when scheduling medical assessments, given the "history of colonial Government control over Aboriginal people and their bodies".
