Legal page 313 of 571

The FWC has labelled a "fishing expedition" an attempt by the United Firefighters' Union to access a vast array of documents from the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, in an alleged dispute over budget cuts the union claims will negatively impact its members.

The FWC has allowed an employee to file an unfair dismissal claim 33 days late, on the grounds that he had been hospitalised due to a suicide attempt four days after his sacking.

The Commonwealth Bank has denied bullying and retrenching a former general manager for revealing a scheme allowing colleagues to artificially boost bonuses, claiming also that his actions did not qualify for whistleblower protections and that he cannot pursue his claim under the terms of his deed of release.

The FWC has rejected an employer's claim it did not summarily dismiss an apprentice by text, describing a later email in which the teenager was told "we are holding your position open" as a "retroactive" attempt to characterise the worker as having quit.

The head of La Trobe University's Law School has accused the institution's HR executive director of acting beyond her remit and taking disproportionate disciplinary action in breach of its agreement by suspending him following complaints by an IR academic and a law lecturer.

The FWC has affirmed BHP's right to introduce roster changes recognising "lifestyle arrangements" and made a call on what constitutes "significant" support for them, after the CFMMEU failed to establish that an agreement clause only allows for bottom-up instigation.

An employer who failed to record a worker's serial misconduct, provide a written warning or give him an opportunity to respond nevertheless did not deny him a fair go when forcing him to resign following a brief lunch room meeting, the FWC has found.

The FWC has reproached a childcare provider for failing to inform a worker that her past experience in a violent relationship was a "relevant" factor in its decision to dismiss her after she challenged a co-worker to a fight.

An IR academic and a law lecturer who accused the head of La Trobe University's Law School of bullying have failed to convince the Federal Court to suppress their names in his legal challenge to an investigation into their complaints, the judge finding their identities had already been revealed by an industry publication.

RAFFWU is yet to concede defeat on a bid to quash Woolworths' 2012 agreement, after an FWC full bench threw out its challenge to the approval of the retailer's replacement deal and accused it of trying to deprive some team members of an allowance "merely to aid" its termination application.