In what a union has hailed as a victory for a commonsense approach to mobile phone use, a tribunal has reinstated a bus driver sacked for making two calls while parked with the doors open and the vehicle's dual braking system engaged.
IR Minister Christian Porter has ruled out introducing special sick leave for casuals, saying it is not the time for "wholesale structural change" to the IR system for one group of workers.
The FWC has lambasted Hungry Jack's for wasting the tribunal's time and resources, causing it to wrongly approve a national deal that was not filed or signed by the actual employer.
The "exceptional circumstances" created by COVID-19 warrant delaying the operative date of any minimum wage increase by a fortnight to July 15, according to the Ai Group, while the Victorian Government is calling for a rise of at least 3%.
Another FWC member has rejected full bench advice that they should, in the face of objections, withdraw from arbitrating disputes they have previously conciliated, dismissing claims she displayed "antipathy" towards the union seeking her recusal.
A court has held that BlueScope Steel repudiated the contracts of managerial employees by taking them off annualised salary arrangements under a 2015 Port Kembla steelworks rescue plan said to have cut their pay by more than $20,000.
A court has ordered that the Fair Work Ombudsman refund company directors any restitution made to former employees if the regulator is unable to track them down within 28 days.
The ASU has hit out at the FWO for letting Qantas off with a $390,500 "slap on the wrist" contrition fine for underpaying 640 misclassified head office workers by about $7.1 million, but the airline says its self-reported error also led to about $22 million in overpayments.
A trucking company had a valid reason to sack a driver for speeding in his B-Double, but informing him by phone was "unnecessarily callous", the FWC has found.
A full Federal Court has upheld the dismissal of a senior lawyer who publicly criticised government clients of his firm, finding that repeatedly disobeying reasonable directions to desist trumped his right to express a political opinion.
