Employers are likely to maintain their own paid parental leave schemes even if the Abbott Government's proposed Bill to prevent so-called parent "double-dipping" into government and employer-funded schemes becomes law, according to a key employer group.
Boral Resources has had an early win in its court battle with the CFMEU over damages caused by concrete bans, with the Victorian Supreme Court overruling objections from the union, and allowing the company to plead a wide range of evidence on the losses it suffered.
The Federal Court has ordered former HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson to repay about $1.4 million to her old union, in an important judgment on the conduct of officers in registered organisations.
Hutchison and the MUA are today discussing a resolution of the ongoing dispute over the late night sacking of 97 Port Botany and Brisbane stevedoring workers via email and text message.
The High Court has granted special leave for the federal government, the CFMEU and the CEPU to challenge a full Federal Court judgment that effectively stops the FWO and FWBC from continuing their practice of providing "agreed" penalty ranges to courts.
A full Federal Court has upheld an order that required an aged care provider to pay a former employee the annual leave she accrued while she was absent from the workplace on workers' compensation.
The Abbott Government has appointed to the High Court the Federal Court judge Michelle Gordon, who last month was part of a full bench that struck down the Coalition's attempt to exclude foreign workers on offshore resources projects from Australian labour standards.
A Federal Circuit Court judge has slammed a barrister who said she was too "busy" to file written submissions in an adverse action case, criticising her conduct as "contemptuous" of his orders and "discourteous" to the court. He also said her involvement in another case might require investigation by "relevant authorities".
The Federal Circuit Court has found it has the discretion to make costs orders against lawyers in industrial matters, despite the absence of any such power in the Fair Work Act.
There is "no substance" to the claims of inconsistent FWC decision-making that have underpinned calls for an independent appeal mechanism, according to the tribunal's president, Justice Iain Ross.