The FWC has questioned the choices that left two sacked childcare workers out of pocket despite being awarded compensation of 21 weeks' pay, observing that a "realistic" approach to the employer's settlement offer would have avoided costs that included having a barrister represent them before the tribunal over three days.
An academic's $2 million adverse action case against a university's HR department has been transferred to the Federal Court, a judge observing that its outcome has "significant" implications for the tertiary sector's ability to scrap tenured positions funded by endowments.
In a decision said to have "massively" raised the bar on compensation amounts, Queensland's Industrial Court has boosted a "manifestly inadequate" $50,000 payout to nearly $160,000 for a casual laundry worker who faced demands for s-x in return for work.
The FWC has redrawn an employer's "line in the sand" over the use of mobile phones while driving forklifts, ordering it to reinstate and compensate a worker after concluding he was harshly sacked for a first safety policy breach.
A tribunal has ordered a restaurant manager accused of drugging and raping a bartender to pay aggravated and other damages of $150,000, after leaving the vulnerable international student too traumatised to keep working in the hospitality sector.
In a decision highlighting the challenges facing employers attempting to manage stand-downs during the pandemic, the FWC has ordered a global aviation ground services company to compensate a part-time worker after favouring more valued employees.
Inghams unfairly sacked an Ethiopian-born worker for failing to weight-check multiple boxes of turkey leg, the FWC has held, noting its failure to provide a translator while "superficially" adhering to correct procedures might explain why it did not know he was following a supervisor's instructions.
Leading wealth management company Ord Minnett is facing a $230,000 underpayment claim from a commission-based former advisor who is pursuing his minimum award rate and leave entitlements dating back to 2015, plus penalties.
A family-run venue management and catering business with thousands of workers and an "unsophisticated" and "impotent" HR function constructively dismissed its manager at a major stadium after issuing her two "entirely unsatisfactory" warnings for conduct that included requesting free tickets to a Geelong v Richmond AFL game.
In a novel use of the Corporations Act in an IR setting, logistics company DHL has secured an urgent interlocutory injunction to stop the UWU procuring alleged confidential information from about 60 shop stewards that might have given it a significant advantage in enterprise negotiations underway across the company's sites.
