In what stands as a forensic analysis of disciplinary process failings, a judge in a near-300-page judgment has found that a construction giant took adverse action against a senior manager when it sacked him for allegedly intimidating property owners while partying during the 2020 bushfire recovery effort.
A full Federal Court has clarified the extent to which employers must investigate alternative roles for workers caught up in restructures, finding that a mining company had an obligation to assess whether employees could replace already-engaged contractors before making them redundant.
A café owner penalised for ignoring a FWO compliance notice has been referred to a legal profession regulator after variously describing herself as a "Commonwealth public prosecutions Lawyer" and "Gov lawyer" in emails to a court.
Former Qantas ground crew seeking compensation for their unlawful sacking in 2020 will have to wait at least two more months after parties presented the trial judge with competing views about the cohort's continuing employment prospects.
The High Court will consider whether employers' duty of care and consequent exposure to damages extends to providing "safe" disciplinary and dismissal processes that protect sacked workers from psychiatric injury.
A ceremony to welcome former employment and IR silk Craig Dowling as a Federal Court judge has heard his in-court performance has been likened to a cobra hypnotising a mouse, while barristers always wanted to work with him as he left "no stone unturned".
A European expatriate who regularly swore at his Australian subordinates in an apparent attempt to spur them to achieve work standards expected in his homeland has lost his adverse action case against his former employer, after a court ruled his behaviour warranted summary dismissal.
A full High Court has refused Catholic school employers leave to appeal a "systemic[ally] importan[t]" finding that employees who resign before a new agreement's retrospective pay rises come into effect are entitled to back pay.
A court has today fined a Qantas subsidiary $250,000 for deliberately discriminating against a health and safety representative who told workers to stop cleaning planes from China during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
