The newly-independent South Australian Senator Rex Patrick says he will now focus on job creation through industry policy and value-added manufacturing to help Australia recover from the coronavirus pandemic rather than "tweaking the IR rules" as sought by the Morrison Government.
In rejecting the unfair dismissal claim of a childcare worker who said she resigned because of bullying, a senior FWC member has observed it is "unfortunately easy" to respond to performance management with counter-allegations.
In a decision illustrating how much latitude the FWC is prepared to give unrepresented applicants, an employer has failed to have a former worker's unfair dismissal claim binned despite his "repeated failures" to attend conferences.
While ordering BP to pay more than $200,000 compensation to a reinstated worker who made a Hitler parody video of its protracted bargaining with oil refinery workers, an FWC full bench has allowed it to reduce his bonus and revoke a promotion.
A Woolworths shopping trolley subcontractor must compensate a volunteer firefighter whose alleged unreliability contributed to his sacking via text message, after which the employer blocked his number.
New data from the FWC has confirmed the workplace upheaval being wrought by COVID-19, with a leap in unfair dismissal applications, stand-down disputes and agreement variations in pursuit of a wage freeze or deferral.
The FWO's pursuit of penalties over a crew's "sit-in" on a decommissioned trading vessel has been potentially scuppered by a Federal Court finding that they were not covered by an agreement at the time.
The Reserve Bank must reinstate a senior network engineer who accidentally posted to a WhatsApp workplace group a racist message meant for his wife, the FWC finding its procedural failings despite HR expertise to be "simply inexplicable".
A business operator forced to choose between retaining an employee or maintaining his relationship with his wife must pay six months lost remuneration after failing to convince the FWC that dismissing his national sales manager was a case of genuine redundancy.
