A full Federal Court led by Chief Justice James Allsop has expressed disquiet about how employment relationships involving labour hire companies and the rising gig economy are assessed, noting that only respect for decisions by other appeal courts prevented it reaching a different conclusion about a backpacking labourer's status.
A business that "outgrew" its informal HR processes got its fingers burnt when a young employee's welfare became endangered by its tolerance of the escalating misconduct of a worker who threatened to give him "the Ivan Milat treatment", the FWC has found.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has criticised a law firm that experienced a coronavirus outbreak for refusing to allow employees to work from home, as Melbourne prepares for an inspection blitz in response to workplaces emerging as the key transmission point for the hundreds of daily cases.
The "obvious impracticability" of sanitising a koala helped to justify a pandemic-affected wildlife sanctuary's decision to make redundant a worker responsible for co-ordinating photographs of visitors holding its main attraction, the FWC has found.
In a significant ruling on the standing of independent contractors, a full Federal Court has upheld an appeal by two truck drivers pursuing unpaid leave and superannuation entitlements after working exclusively for a multinational company for almost 40 years.
The major iron miner Fortescue Metals has called for the income tax exemption ceiling for employee share schemes to be lifted from $1000 to $5000, arguing the cap is too low to provide a "meaningful incentive".
The FWC has allowed a worker to proceed with her unfair dismissal case after it found that counting the employer's director and company secretary lifted numbers above the 15-employee threshold that excludes small businesses.
In a decision reinforcing the need for pandemic-affected employers to spread the burden fairly, the FWC has found that a multi-billion-dollar business should have reduced hours across a head office team instead of standing down one of its members for an indefinite period.
The Queensland Labor government has introduced legislation to criminalise wage theft and to establish a small claims process in the State courts which has conciliation as a first step.
A senior FWC member has declined to recuse himself from hearing an unfair dismissal case brought by a disbarred lawyer who accused him of "blatant bias" and having a "sweet little racket" bullying unrepresented workers.
