Legal page 546 of 569

Fair Work Bill heads to Senate; and United Voice penalty rates appeal rejected

A pest control company that sacked a bookings officer for initially refusing to disclose whether her partner had gone to work for a rival business was entitled to seek such information, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

A company's requirement for an employee to work additional unpaid hours and make himself available on-call was neither lawful nor reasonable, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in upholding his unfair dismissal claim.

A long-time power station employee who claimed to have been "oddly unsuccessful" in six promotion applications has failed to convince a tribunal that he was discriminated against because of his union or industrial activity.

A motor mechanic who misled his employer about his trade qualifications in a job interview had destroyed the trust and confidence in the employment relationship, the Fair Work Commission has ruled.

TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon has told the Heydon Royal Commission that he has "no recollection" of asking his Victorian secretary Wayne Mader to contribute $20,000 from a state-based fighting fund to support the incumbent leader of the ETU in NSW.

A production manager who "perpetrated a fraud on his employer of a most egregious kind" is facing a compensation bill of more than $1m, including a rare award of exemplary damages, following a court ruling.

A new report from a major employment law firm predicts that the Senate will pass the Abbott Government's Fair Work Act and building industry amendments, suggests the next reforms will be limits on industrial action and productivity requirements for enterprise agreements, and highlights the lower than expected activity in the FWC's anti-bullying jurisdiction.

The Federal Circuit Court has hit a transport operator who sacked a driver for taking carer's leave and then terrorised him, his family and his union solicitor when he instituted legal proceedings with close to the maximum penalty for unlawful adverse action.

The NSW Industrial Court has overturned a ruling that 78 Port Kembla coal terminal workers were owed $2.5 million after signing contracts based on employer assurances they wouldn't be worse off under a replacement superannuation scheme.