ACCI has shot down union proposals that would require employers to provide delegates with iPads, phones, boosted recruitment rights and paid time off for political lobbying, accusing them of trying to use a new model awards term to outsource their own work.
In a decision sure to catch the eye of service providers using rostering apps to keep workers at arm's length, the FWC has found that a home care worker who signed two documents describing her as an independent contractor is in fact an employee capable of suing her employer for unlawful dismissal.
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.
The Australian Human Resources Institute has told the FWC's modern awards review that it opposes any expansion of working from home rights and does not support narrowing the grounds for refusing flexible work requests to "unjustifiable hardship".
An employer is opposing a CFMEU request to have the FWC hold a joint post-PABO compulsory conciliation conference relating to two separate deals for its workers on the Cross River Rail project in South-East Queensland.
An employer supplying well workers for offshore gas operations in the Bass Strait was entitled to stand down most of them when Esso suspended their services during industrial action, but the FWC has made a preliminary finding that a small yet "significant" portion might have been unauthorised.
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 has rejected an employer's bid to limit the amount of confidential employee information it must give an independent agent ahead of a protected action ballot, while it has also refused to amend the proposed PABO to include a safety commitment.
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".
The Federal Court has thrown out a "time barred" former ROC case accusing a MEU mining and energy division president of misusing his union credit card to cover a series of private expenses in the 2016 financial year, while also finding no evidence of dishonesty.
