Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews has pledged to create a new labour inspectorate to police wage underpayments, which will offer a competing state-based jurisdiction to the Commonwealth's Fair Work Ombudsman.
A one-time star employee's anti-bullying application has been rejected despite acknowledgment of his "devastation" at being placed on successive performance improvement plans he believed resulted from unfair interpretations of his position description.
The Federal Court, in re-determining part of a decision awarding $150,000 in underpayments to an ex-employee, has held that she is entitled to a year's accident make-up pay as it kept accruing after her employment ended, but says her superannuation accrual ended with her job.
A tribunal has thrown out a union official's claim he was discriminated against on the basis of his psychological condition and industrial activity, instead finding that his dismissal after five months off work followed an "impossible" demand for assurances he wouldn't be sacked for outstanding disciplinary matters.
In a significant decision on the FWC's power to deal with clashes between agreements and state laws, a tribunal member has found that jurisdiction was established by a combination of health and safety considerations and the absence of legislative reference to exclusive arbitrators.
In upholding the dismissal on medical grounds of a prison officer who was later declared fit, the FWC has noted his union gained permission to obtain a second opinion but also assisted him in making an ill-fated decision not to pursue it until after his termination.
So-called 'comic' employment contracts replacing dense legalese with images have been coolly received by both the peak employer and employee bodies, each expressing a preference for the power of words when it comes to interpretation and enforcement.
Unions have criticised the Turnbull Government's engagement of employer-clientele law firm Seyfarth Shaw for a $90,000 review of fatalities in the construction sector.
The Fair Work Commission acceded to a bid by mining giants to terminate a coal loading agreement after concluding that a system of "self-directed" work teams that constrains management prerogative "needs to go".
A major medical practice's former chief executive has had his application for a bullying order against two doctor-directors thrown out by the FWC, which observed that "short of storming the barricades" he had no prospect of ever meeting the threshold requirement of returning to his job.
