A judge has discounted penalties against a struggling employer that contravened employment laws in an "unfortunate aberration", saying "perfect compliance" is unattainable, while also criticising the FWO for its approach to the case and for seeking disproportionately high fines.
The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union has applied for good faith bargaining orders against Woolworths, while the FWC has vacated a hearing scheduled today into its bid to terminate the retailer's 2012 national agreement.
Employers say their bid in the wake of the Workpac ruling to insert a new "perma-flexi" category into awards will stop workers on regular rosters from "double-dipping", while the CFMMEU has written to mining companies and labour suppliers urging them to change their "casual" employment arrangements.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of a "breathtakingly disobedient" worker who repeatedly flouted his workplace's smoking policy, while it has highlighted the patient approach of his former employer.
Griffith University and the NTEU are satisfied that flexibility and protections in two new agreements will help them ride out the uncertainty they might face from 2020, when undergraduate enrolments could temporarily drop by up to 40% due to Queensland raising its school-leaving age.
Labor outlawing "pay secrecy" clauses to advance equity; Natalie James to chair Victorian gig economy inquiry; and FWC reserves on challenge by worker sacked over misleading CV.
The FWC says it is meeting revised deadlines and developing new strategies to speed up agreement-processing, but some employers are opting to tie initial pay rises to successful ballots rather than approvals, to avoid short-changing employees.
The FWC has advised an employer to consider tightening its system for employee expense claims, in upholding the dismissal of senior manager for fraudulently claiming more than $70,000 in mileage and other alleged costs
