Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has told the High Court that upholding Qantas' challenge to a finding that it unlawfully outsourced ground-handling jobs would lead to a "chronic imbalance" in IR, while the airline argues that the Government should not be allowed to intervene in the case in the first place.
In returning a worker to her job and restoring most of her lost pay, finding the policy the worker breached "might make sense to copyright lawyers and some IT specialists, but probably no one else" the FWC has cautioned that "employer policy documents and manuals must be accessible, understandable and reasonable in their terms".
Casuals cannot be "dispensed with" simply by reducing their hours to zero, the FWC has ruled, clearing the way for a worker to proceed with his adverse action claim.
An employer alleging a "rogue" HR contractor's misconduct robbed it of a chance to defend a supervisor's unfair dismissal claim has failed to convince the FWC to revoke a decision that left it with a $34,000 compensation bill.
In considering the case of a worker sacked for failing to tell his employer about his licence suspension and then lying about it, a NSW IRC member has found that his length of service "'cuts both ways' – the longer an employee’s period of service, the more they can be expected to be aware of the conduct expected of them by their employer".
A Jetstar maintenance supervisor who referred to colleagues as "dumb c-nts" and tried to destroy the credibility of a complaining subordinate by revealing he was overtly flatulent and openly rubbed his p-nis at work has failed to establish that his sacking involved double standards or unfairness.
The FWC has ordered the reinstatement of a construction worker sacked on the basis of a clutch of "confected" claims that included alleged commuting challenges after losing his driver's licence and his purported concealment of firearms and pornography charges.
"Similarities" with the case of a worker awarded compensation after being shown the door for missing a COVID-19 vaccination deadline have not been enough to persuade the FWC that a public utility unfairly dismissed an employee when it denied him a chance to wait for a Novavax jab.
The FWC has ordered a Serco supervisor and corrections officers to front a hearing of an unfair dismissal claim of a prison canine handler who accuses the company of sacking him to cover up the allegedly cruel treatment of a dog that had to have its tail amputated.
A casual Census collector sacked by the ABS for calling on her 7000 LinkedIn connections to revolt against COVID-19 lockdowns has failed to persuade a court that it "violently" discriminated against her.
