A rapidly-growing fast food chain might have lost the race to win approval of its proposed agreement before its expired 2012 deal terminates in a fortnight, after the FWC raised concerns about its new instrument possibly failing the BOOT and treating part-timers as "quasi-casuals".
An Australian-first inquiry into the on-demand economy will consider effects on traditional business models as well as the adequacy of existing workplace laws for workers, and is set to issue a discussion paper.
The FWC has held that a supervisor's demotion to a job "on the tools" with a 9% pay cut was in fact a dismissal, rejecting employer submissions that it was allowed under his contract or via a "notorious" unwritten term.
An FWC full bench has accepted that Qantas was permitted to have a seconded Ashurst lawyer at the bar table during an unfair dismissal hearing, despite being denied external legal representation.
The CFMMEU has used the findings of a report examining international responses to collapsing industries to call for the establishment of a statutory body to support 8000 directly-employed workers impacted by the forecast closure of Australia's coal-fired power stations.
The CFMMEU and the mineworker at the centre of the full Federal Court's much-scrutinised recent decision on casual leave have sought leave to join the Federal IR Minister in intervening in what is seen as a test of the ruling's ambit.
The FWC will set a week of hearings at the end of February to hear a RAFFWU bid to quash Woolworths' nominally-expired 2012 deal before a newly voted-up replacement is approved, with the retailer and the SDA saying they need time to consult the rest of the workforce.
A new body should be established outside the FWO to exclusively address underpayments to temporary visa holders, argue the authors of a report which found that less than 2% of more than 2000 migrant workers surveyed successfully recouped all their unpaid wages through existing channels.
