Lawyers behind an underpayments class action on behalf of more than 20,000 junior doctors say a $230 million settlement reached with NSW Health is the largest in the nation's legal history and represents a "seismic shift".
A construction company has failed in its bid to stop potential strikes amid claims of union interference in the protected action ballot process, the FWC pointing out that it cannot make orders preventing industrial action yet to be endorsed or notified.
A training officer employed on a fixed term contract can proceed with his adverse action case against a volunteer rescue organisation after the FWC accepted that it sacked him when it told him two weeks before its expiry that it would not be renewed.
A judge has warned the FWO of a possible "perception" it failed to comply with its model litigant obligations after dropping the "most serious" claim of threatening behaviour from a CFMEU right of entry case as part of a liability deal.
An international retailer, TK Maxx, has pleaded guilty to seven breaches of Victoria's child employment laws at one of its stores, with the Melbourne Magistrates Court placing it on an adjourned undertaking for 12 months with the condition it pay $5,000 to the court fund.
In a significant judgment on the FWC's powers, a full Federal Court has today dismissed a major hospitality group's claim that a Commission bench exhibited bias when it voiced its concerns about an already-approved agreement ultimately revealed to have been voted up by three venue managers and a payroll employee not covered by it.
A FWC full bench has made a provisional ruling in favour of ensuring the lowest pay classification in modern awards is used only for a short period of induction and training, making the second lowest rate the benchmark for continuing employment.
The FWC has ordered a small business owner to compensate his "disgruntled" ex-partner after finding she withdrew money from the company account in the context of their "deteriorating relationship", not as an employee wanting to damage the enterprise.
In a decision with echoes of the CFMEU's failed opposition to a controversial non-union power industry deal that went all the way to a full Federal Court, the FWC has approved a civil construction agreement after rejecting the union's "granular" approach to explaining its terms.
