The FWC's new anti-bullying jurisdiction is likely to subject the "largely unregulated" workplace investigations industry to long-overdue scrutiny, and might give rise to questions about whether employees can lawfully refuse employer directions to cooperate, according to Maurice Blackburn principal Josh Bornstein.
Former High Court judge Dyson Heydon has told the first sitting of the Coalition Government's royal commission into unions he is heading that its terms of reference are "not hostile to trade unions", while outlining the heavy criminal sanctions that apply to those who breach its rules.
A senior prison officer's long-running bid to keep his job remains alive after he successfully challenged a ruling by a NSW IRC full bench that upheld threats to dismiss him for failing to follow correct procedures in an incident that led to the death of a prisoner.
The FWBC has included state leaders of the CFMEU and CEPU in a list it has issued today of 18 construction union officials who don't hold federal entry permits, in a bid to help the industry's employers repel unauthorised workplace visits.
The Fair Work Commission has rejected another employer application to create a modern enterprise award rather than be bound by a sector-wide modern award.
Oil and gas companies are pushing the federal government to introduce special greenfields agreements lasting more than five years for "major" projects involving at least $50m in capital spending and to boost certainty by giving employers an automatic right to an arbitrated extension of the deals.
In a case demonstrating the risks for unions and others in linking to newspaper articles on their websites, a ship's master has won $90,000 in damages from the MUA after a court found that it defamed him when it said he had placed his crew in danger.
The SDA has successfully appealed against fast food and hair & beauty industry employers having greater flexibility in compensating employees for working on public holidays.
An employee who lodged an unfair dismissal claim one day late after initially making a complaint about his sacking to the Fair Work Ombudsman has failed to overturn the FWC's refusal to extend time.
A company granted a broad Victorian Supreme Court order to curb a picket line at its warehouse remains at loggerheads with the NUW over its push for a new enterprise agreement.
