In the first real IR test of the post-July 1 Senate's precarious balance of power, Palmer United Party senators voted with their Coalition colleagues last night to preserve, by one vote, the rights of the WA government and third parties to ask the Fair Work Commission to terminate damaging industrial action.
Employees are not entitled to bring a support person to a meeting to investigate a workplace incident that might result in dismissal, a FWC full bench has ruled in overturning the reinstatement of a long-serving forklift driver.
BHP Mitsubishi Alliance will cut about 700 coal mining jobs in central Queensland, raising concerns among unions that they will make greater use of contingent workers.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has upheld a decision to refuse a Queensland building union official an entry permit, while a senior member has stayed the suspension of permits for 12 other officers.
In two separate decisions, the Fair Work Commission has ruled that it has the power to arbitrate on the use of mobile phones at BHP Coal's Bowen Basin mines and that a tram driver was unfairly sacked after being accused of using his phone while on the road.
Even a wharfie can swear too much, according to the Fair Work Commission, which has drawn a distinction between "everyday descriptive language" and swearing "aggressively and maliciously" at someone, in upholding the sacking of a WA employee.
A Toll employee who intimidated a drug and alcohol testing technician and maintained he was medically unfit to attend meetings with management about his behaviour was validly dismissed, the Fair Work Commission has found.
A maths teacher employed as a casual for one month is suing the public school's principal and his supervisor for defamation after they assessed him – using a pro forma departmental form - as suitable only for limited casual teaching roles.
A Fair Work Commission full bench has overturned the reinstatement of a Sydney Harbour captain sacked for failing a drug test after crashing his ferry into a wharf.
A court has rejected a discrimination complaint from an indigenous graduate employee of the former DEEWR, after accepting that the department's prompt, reasonable and informal response to a racially offensive remark should have ensured the employee wasn't injured in the enjoyment of her work.
