The FWC has extended time for a BHP joint venture mineworker to lodge a general protections claim challenging his sacking over a failed drug test, but has agreed there is "great weight" to the employer's view that it is essentially an unfair dismissal application in disguise.
In a rare case of an FWC member standing themselves down, a commissioner has found that comments she made about the "vexatious" applicants in a discontinued anti-bullying case could lead observers to question her impartiality when considering a counter anti-bullying application by the original respondent.
The CPSU says it will recommend Bureau of Meteorology workers reject a new agreement offer that relegates delegates' access rights to a side deal and makes them subject to management approval, vowing in the meantime to keep inserting campaign messages into the bureau's forecasts.
The Fair Work Commission is aiming to complete its four-yearly review of modern awards over the next six months, with the "substantial majority" of the new instruments coming into force in the first quarter of 2019.
Observing it is not "incumbent on an employer to take any particular steps" when carrying out sackings, an FWC full bench has quashed a senior member's unfair dismissal decision based on an incorrect rule that workers must have an opportunity to make submissions on sanctions.
In a broad warning to employees mixing social media and work, the FWC has found that a BHP Billiton mineworker was justifiably sacked despite upon realising his error quickly deleting two Facebook posts mistakenly asserting shifts were cancelled.
The AFP has told the Federal Court its investigation into the leaking of details about last year's planned raids on the AWU's offices will be completed by August 1, according to legal and union sources.
Disputes near vanishing point: ABS figures; Deals of justice turn slowly; First labour hire operator suspended; BCA Commitment "has little credibility": Senate report.
A February FWC full bench finding that a worker was wrongly denied an extension of time to file on the basis he needed a credible explanation for the entire length of the delay has prompted a bench to overturn another decision refusing more time.
The Flight Attendants Association has successfully claimed a small business exemption from a manager's unfair dismissal claim on the basis elected officials are not employees, the FWC finding that in helping draft a ROC complaint she defied reasonable directions not to discuss the secretary.
