In a significant decision as to what constitutes industrial action, a full Federal Court has found that the legislative framework does not capture instances where a subcontractor's workers down tools with the support of their direct employer.
The CFMMEU is taking a building company to court for allegedly requiring 24 hours' written notice for permit holders wanting to investigate suspected safety breaches at a WA construction site unless the union sent someone qualified to carry out testing.
The ABCC is pursuing the CFMMEU and eight organisers for repeatedly refusing to show entry permits at a major Queensland road project on the basis they were responding to safety issues as "concerned citizens, not as union officials".
Social media "moves the dial" on harassing workplace behaviour and will contribute to more litigation flowing through to the courts, according to Australian Human Resources Institute chair Peter Wilson.
Fewer than one in five people who experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years made a formal report or complaint about it, according to a new national survey by the Human Rights Commission.
The FWC has found that a firefighter's dishonesty in concealing a professional ban arising from indecent assaults was sufficient reason for his dismissal, even after rejecting the employer's own reasons as invalid.
An HR manager made redundant less than three months after accusing his managing director of using company funds to pay for a methamphetamine addiction was not unfairly dismissed, the FWC has found.
In a significant blow to ABCC attempts to rein in the behaviour of union officials by holding them personally liable for breach fines, the Federal Court has today ruled that an offender's past record must be taken into account before imposing such conditions.
The FWC has confirmed the right of employers in safety-critical industries to dismiss workers whose out-of-hours conduct impairs the safe performance of their duties, in the case of a flight attendant who called in sick during a layover after being hospitalised with a blood-alcohol reading of .205.
A leading workplace academic has called on legislators to consider a UK parliamentary inquiry's recommendation to impose a legal obligation to protect workers from sexual harassment, with breaches resulting in "substantial financial penalties".
