A FWC member made an error when she refused to admit medical evidence from a worker to "protect" him from breaching State workplace injury laws around unauthorised use of information, a full bench has ruled.
In a significant decision unsettling the FWC's approach to general protections applications, a full Federal Court has ruled that a Commission bench "misconstrued" limitations on the tribunal's powers to first establish whether workers have been dismissed before considering such matters.
A judge has highlighted an HR manager's "opaque" attempts at explanation in deciding to fine mining giant Glencore for failing to pay a retrenched employee his full entitlement for untaken long service leave.
The Morrison Government's IR review will consider whether to give the FWC the power to penalise sacked workers if they make unfair dismissal claims that they then fail to genuinely pursue.
Company directors face tough penalties for avoiding employee entitlements under new laws cracking down on "sharp corporate practices" such as phoenixing and asset-shifting.
A decorated Legal Aid solicitor has failed to convince the NSW IRC that his dismissal over a domestic violence incident was harsh or unjust because there wasn't enough connection between his crime and his job.
Sacked NUW NSW official Nick Belan has today continued his challenge to the FWC's ability to rely on evidence given to royal commissions, urging a full Federal Court to treat the tribunal like a court and find that it should not have been able to uphold his sacking on the basis of admissions made in 2015.
A senior FWC member has approved an employer's request for legal representation in a dismissal case, but not before requiring hearings be conducted in private, that he be free to provide "appropriate" guidance to the unrepresented former worker, and that he retain the power to revoke permission if the lawyer complicates proceedings.
The Fair Work Commission has sought to better delineate the law around so-called constructive dismissals, in a case in which it lambasted a multinational company's HR department for overseeing a process it likened to "entrapment".
A presidential member of the FWC has prodded legislators to revisit "confusing" aspects of the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code in order to deliver on its promise of speeding parties' progress through the unfair dismissal jurisdiction.