Victorian unions will push the Andrews Labor Government to make deliberate and dishonest "wage theft" a criminal offence if it wins the state election in November, while they will also be pursuing industrial manslaughter laws.
An FWC full bench has accepted that ordering a "cooling off" period unfairly rewarded an employer for its intransigence in refusing to bargain during a protected strike.
An entry dispute at a Queensland textile plant has exposed subterranean tensions during the merger of the CFMEU, TCFU and MUA, raising concerns about possible internal coverage disputes in future.
The Federal Circuit Court has taken a broad view of what amounts to an employment-related complaint in ordering an employer to pay more than $150,000 in compensation and penalties for its adverse action when it sacked a senior employee who upbraided his chief executive for failing to pay outstanding invoices to a key subcontractor that had downed tools in protest.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a personal assistant who became entangled in a company power play, finding that her employer's belief that she lied to cover a director's tardiness satisfied the requirements of the small business code.
In its pursuit of a former economics professor for allegedly paying his employees as little as $10 an hour, the FWO is also seeking an injunction to restrain him from future breaches.
In a rare case turning on an employee's loss of trust in his employer rather than the other way around, the FWC has stepped back from ordering the reinstatement of a worker found to have been unfairly dismissed, despite describing it as the most "compelling" remedy.
The FWC has ordered a franchisee to compensate an unfairly dismissed employee who contacted head office to report her boss for drunkenness and drink driving in accordance with company whistleblowing provisions.
Esso Australia is seeking to prevent the Fair Work Commission from making a workplace determination for its Bass Strait oil and gas operations, arguing its legal basis has been "fatally undermined" by a recent High Court ruling.
