The law firm whose advocacy helped spur the FWC to consider regulating paid agents has called for improved "referral pathways" that steer workers contesting their dismissals towards pro bono clearing houses, Legal Aid and the community legal sector.
An experienced former employer-clientele lawyer turned HR manager has suggested that one way of discouraging paid agents from pursuing "unwinnable" cases is to introduce a "threshold" settlement amount below which they cannot charge clients for their services.
The FWC should look to the South Australian paid agent model because its registration criteria and disciplinary powers for code of conduct breaches are superior to the Western Australian system, the WA IRC's registrar says in a submission to the FWC's consultation on options to rein in "challenging paid agent conduct".
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 FWC bench appointed to scrutinise a paid agent's future involvement in adverse action and unfair dismissal cases has asked a first tranche of 46 applicants to explain why they need to be represented by a firm recently described as having engaged in "unethical" practices.
The ACTU and Minerals Council have won permission to intervene in what a FWC full bench describes as a "significant test" of Labor's multi-employer bargaining laws.
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.
Media host and writer Antoinette Lattouf has failed to have the ABC's jurisdictional objections to her unlawful dismissal case referred directly to a FWC full bench, despite arguing that she will appeal an unfavourable finding and that she "anticipates" that the broadcaster will do the same.
Queensland's departing police commissioner failed to properly consider the human rights implications of two ultimately unlawful vaccination mandates issued at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Supreme Court review has found.
Lawyers for media host and writer Antoinette Lattouf have taken her high-profile departure from the ABC to the Federal Court, alleging she was unlawfully sacked in breach of the ABC's enterprise agreement.
