Two long-serving employees who were sacked after they absconded from work to attend a strip show could have succeeded in their dismissal claim had they been honest about their whereabouts, the Queensland IRC has found.
A handyman who was engaged as a short-term casual but consistently worked a 40-hour-week has been allowed to proceed with an unfair dismissal claim, in a Queensland IRC ruling that builds on the AIRC's recent Parkview and Bath Arms decisions.
AIRC bench to hear Anzac Day case on April 7; Queensland unions might seek to remove small business exemption from paying severance; Coates Hire wins mature worker employment award; and labour law association calls for papers for September conference.
The Federal Government now has the power to introduce national OHS legislation via the External Affairs power, after it ratified the ILO's Convention on Occupational Safety and Health.
A full bench of the AIRC has ruled that establishing who instigated a fight in the workplace is not as important as considering the overall circumstances in which it occurred.
In an extension of the peace process brokered last year for the $650 million Burrup fertilisers project, WA unions are in the process of signing a deal for all resources projects in the State's north-west that puts demarcation disputes in the ACTU's hands.
In the first change to the federal redundancy safety net in 20 years, a full bench of the AIRC has doubled to 16 weeks employees' maximum severance payment and, for the first time, extended a severance pay entitlement to small business employees, but capped at eight weeks.
The AIRC has certified an s170LJ agreement to cover about 50 employees of a Coca-Cola bottling plant in WA, but has refused to become involved in any disputes which may arise over its application.
