A geoscientist made redundant after almost two decades with the same company has been given a second chance to argue he was unfairly dismissed after a full bench found his former employer potentially led a Commission member into error when asserting there were no alternative positions available.
The FWC has rejected the ACTU's bid for a new entitlement for working parents and carers to work flexible hours, but has provisionally indicated it intends to publish a model award clause that will extend the right to request flexible work to casuals with six months service and require employers to provide more explanation for refusing requests.
An FWC full bench has refused to vary six retail awards to give workers an extra day's pay or a day off when public holidays fall their on non-working days, but has found insufficient evidence to establish an employer claim that it would have cost businesses up to $267 million a year.
In a ruling as to what constitutes "physical effort", a court has found that opening or removing curtains and straps securing a truck's load did not qualify a driver for an extra allowance under a transport industry award.
In a decision sure to be closely analysed by employers, a court has ruled that a worker is entitled to accrued annual leave despite being paid a casual loading for 15 years.
On the heels of this week's rejection of a United Voice and AEU equal pay bid for childcare workers, the IEU on Monday heads to the FWC to press its separate claim on behalf of 12,000 university-qualified teachers employed in long day care centres and preschools.
An FWC full bench has today thrown out a United Voice and AEU equal pay claim for childcare workers after finding a 2005 work value case was insufficient, in the absence of contemporary evidence, to establish metalworkers as an appropriate comparator.
Abandonment of employment clauses have been removed from six modern awards in the wake of an FWC full bench ruling that employers must take the "additional step" of ending the employment relationship when a worker walks off the job.
In a decision that United Voice says will make it harder for low-paid workers to be classified as award free, an FWC full bench has found that animal attendants and supervisors covered by a Queensland pet resort agreement should have been assessed against the Miscellaneous Award.
