The RTBU has used a relatively new Queensland IRC power to hear safety disputes to pursue an alleged sexual harassment case on behalf of an Aurizon train driver member who claims the company "washed its hands" of the matter on the basis that it occurred outside of work.
Employers operating in high-risk environments such as aged and child care have been given further confidence that they can force workers to immunise after the FWC today upheld the sacking of a long-serving care assistant who refused a compulsory flu shot on allergy grounds.
Mining unions are seeking an urgent meeting with BHP Billiton over a new alcohol policy limiting workers at remote camps to four standard drinks per day.
The director of a shed-building company has become the first person to be sentenced to serve a prison term under Western Australia's workplace safety and health laws.
The ACTU says a decision by federal and state WHS ministers to regulate psychosocial hazards will obligate employers to eliminate mental health risks, but has bemoaned their failure to support national industrial manslaughter laws as a "missed opportunity".
The Attorney-General's Department is examining the implications of a corporate restructuring last year which saw the taxpayer-funded Fair Entitlements Guarantee liable for about $40 million in employee entitlement claims.
Leading IR lawyer Steven Amendola says a response is needed to last week's call by a full Federal Court for a better system to handle litigants with "serious mental health problems".
The FWC has reinstated a bacon worker, after holding it was not threatening to say she felt like knocking a colleague off her perch, while finding the employer contributed to their stress, denied her procedural fairness and had a tendency to exaggerate evidence.
A full Federal Court has today upheld a permanent stay on an openly gay solicitor's discrimination and harassment case, after he refused to undergo a psychiatric examination paid for by his firm and performed by a specialist of its choosing.
The FWC has found a Telstra HR specialist properly handled an OHS representative's challenge to his retrenchment, despite the CEPU contending his selection was "infected by bias" due to his role and a history of interpersonal conflict with his manager.
