The union leading the campaign against prospective job losses at a major brewery is at risk of being sidelined after the FWC found it "reached the line between [unacceptably careless disregard] and. . . deliberate non-compliance" in failing to communicate restraining notices to members.
The FWC has described a kennel hand's dismissal as so unfair "even the dogs in the street know" it, putting the labradoodle breeders on notice to take better care of their puppies than they do of the humans they employ.
In an instructive decision on the treatment of post-dismissal medical evidence, an FWC full bench has thrown out the appeal of a prison officer declared fit after being sacked on medical grounds, while again taking a swipe at his union's handling of the matter.
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.
Unilever has successfully challenged a requirement to count employees' prior periods of casual and seasonal work when calculating length of service for redundancy payouts, an FWC full bench calling into question a landmark 2016 majority finding that casual work should be included.
A company that relied on an FWC online calculator to notify workers of a ballot has had the resulting agreement thrown out for failing to provide the statutory seven-day access period, prompting a senior Commission member to lament his inability to "overcome what is clearly a procedural failure".
On the second of 16 days of FWC hearings into an IEU equal pay claim for early childhood teachers, the union is blaming low wages for a skill shortage in the overwhelmingly female-dominated sector, while the ACTU says the case will test whether the Fair Work Act's equal pay principle can deliver.
In a decision confirming that employers must "expressly" advise workers when their job is at risk and provide them enough time to demonstrate improvement, an FWC full bench has quashed a finding that a bike shop complied with the Small Business Unfair Dismissal Code when sacking one of its mechanics.
The FWC will next week respond to reports urging it to speed up and reduce the cost to employers of unfair dismissal and adverse action claims, with a new small business division being held out as a chance to weed out "frequent flyers" pursuing applications of dubious merit.
In a ruling that builds on the recent "shadow lawyers" decision, an FWC full bench has found that a large company with in-house IR legal expertise does not require approval to engage a law firm to prepare its defence of a self-represented worker's dismissal claim.