The Federal Court has accepted that "future whistleblowers" might be deterred if it releases all Registered Organisations Commission documents relating to last year's raids on the AWU by the Australian Federal Police.
The ASU is appealing a finding that the ATO can require employees to 'hot desk' regardless of whether they perform field work, the union arguing it wouldn't have endorsed the 2017 agreement if it had been made aware of the agency's intention.
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.
Two new information sheets issued by the Registered Organisations Commission spell out the penalties for reprisals against whistleblowers and details of looming benefits disclosure requirements for bargaining representatives.
An FWC member has declined to award costs to a prominent community legal centre's general manager despite finding she had been capriciously ousted by the management committee during a restructure and ordering her reinstatement.
An FWC full bench has confirmed that the tribunal can rely on evidence given to royal commissions, this month rejecting former NUW NSW official Nick Belan's challenge to findings that his admissions under oath helped establish his financial misconduct and justified dismissal.
The FWC has ruled on the out-of-hours conduct of a maintenance worker who claimed he was acting in self-defence when he ended up in a fight after a "horsing-around" passer-by took his cowboy hat, leading to his expulsion from the giant Wheatstone LNG project.
In a decision further clarifying naming protocols for complaint and litigation respondents, a court has ruled that a law firm's individual partners need not be identified in a discrimination case brought by a former employee.
Employers opposing the merger of the CFMEU, MUA and TCFU have warned the FWC that the unions would use their combined might to cripple the resource and construction industries, but they argue that in any case more than 45 pending penalty proceedings should legally disqualify them from amalgamating.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a TAFE manager for preparing a false and misleading briefing note in a bid to exculpate himself from responsibility after becoming "caught up" in a training scam, and has rejected his submissions that the employer made him a scapegoat.