The FWC has ruled that an Uber driver's "stand by" time doesn't count when determining whether he had worked "on a regular basis", but he can still pursue his unfair deactivation claim because he worked more than three days a week.
Employers and unions are urging the FWC in its self-initiated test case to insert WFH provisions in the clerks award, but are starkly divided on whether workers should have a right to request, while academics back extending it to all – with protections – to boost equity.
In a case highlighting the "obvious danger" of relying on artificial intelligence for legal advice, the FWC has refused to extend time for a "hopeless" 900-day late dismissal challenge written by and filed on the suggestion of ChatGPT.
A FWC presidential member has declined to grant an employer's request to delay consideration of its appeal against an unfavourable long service leave ruling while it awaits the result of a related Federal Court case, taking a dim view of its attempt to move forums "midstream".
The Greens will use their balance of power in the Senate to seek to amend the Fair Work Act to give workers the right to work at least two days a week from home if it is "practical and reasonable", echoing Victoria's recent policy proposal.
The Albanese Government should collaborate with business groups and unions to establish an independent digital and AI transition body charged with preventing workers being left behind, according to a Jobs and Skills Australia report suggesting the changes are more likely to "augment" jobs than take them over.
A labour law academic says there is a need to ask how Australia's IR system is so "fundamentally broken" that it incentivises the conduct evident in Qantas's decision to unlawfully outsource jobs to avoid bargaining, in circumstances where the record $90 million fine imposed yesterday will barely dent its resultant annual savings.
The FWC has ordered lift manufacturer Schindler to end an unlawful lockout of more than 200 workers, holding that alerting union delegates to impending "employer response action" did not satisfy a requirement to notify bargaining representatives.
FWC President Adam Hatcher has conceded the tribunal can juggle only so many balls, placing on ice its scrutiny of potential gender bias in awards' overtime provisions after the publication of an internal research paper.
Today's Federal Court allocation of $50 million of a record $90 million Qantas fine to the TWU "incentivises" other unions, the judge concerned says, while the penalty judgment leaves open directing part of it to the 1820 displaced workers, who might not have yet been properly compensated.
