Unilever has successfully challenged a requirement to count employees' prior periods of casual and seasonal work when calculating length of service for redundancy payouts, an FWC full bench calling into question a landmark 2016 majority finding that casual work should be included.
A state IR commissioner has recused himself from hearing a high-profile adverse action case after admitting he shouldn't have perused material from the state's anti-corruption body that contradicted other evidence, before he considered admitting it.
In a decision confirming that employers must "expressly" advise workers when their job is at risk and provide them enough time to demonstrate improvement, an FWC full bench has quashed a finding that a bike shop complied with the Small Business Unfair Dismissal Code when sacking one of its mechanics.
In a ruling that builds on the recent "shadow lawyers" decision, an FWC full bench has found that a large company with in-house IR legal expertise does not require approval to engage a law firm to prepare its defence of a self-represented worker's dismissal claim.
The FWC on rehearing a yard hand's dismissal application has observed his employer's lack of HR expertise did not wash as an excuse for the "disgraceful and grossly unfair" sacking, but slashed compensation due to his vulgar language and propensity to snap when frustrated.
The FWO has launched a challenge to last month's Federal Court order for the MUA to pay a $38,000 fine for a single contravention of the prohibition on unlawful strikes, when the watchdog was seeking $3.6 million for what it says was more than 500 breaches during industrial action against stevedore Hutchison Ports.
An order requiring the NTEU to give a university more than the statutory three days' notice of protected industrial action has been quashed by an FWC full bench that found a tribunal member wrongly presupposed that any such action would be suspended by the Commission if it interfered with student exams or graduation.
A court has imposed a $71,000 costs order on an HR manager who took a "scattergun" approach to challenging her dismissal, but has stopped short of imposing a similar order on her high-profile Sydney barrister, despite criticising his role in the case.
