A wholefood store that summarily dismissed a chef after a three-day absence for cancer treatment has failed to establish that he abandoned his employment, the FWC slamming its "extraordinarily heartless disregard".
United Voice and the NUW are pushing ahead with merger plans to create Australia's biggest blue-collar union, with almost 156,000 members and an organising model that seeks to tackle low-paid labour hire jobs as well as part-time and casual work.
The FWC will reconsider a mining company's bid to terminate an eight-year-old agreement covering no workers, a full bench finding a senior member gave it no opportunity to address his concern that it would not be in the public interest prior to talks with the CFMMEU.
The FWC has stymied a company director's unfair dismissal claim for a second time, after a fresh hearing affirmed his car allowance and other benefits put his earnings beyond the high income threshold.
A public servant who claims her transfer to the HR department constituted bullying and retaliation for whistleblowing has failed to convince the FWC to issue interim orders removing the financial security authority's chief people officer as her supervisor and preventing disciplinary action.
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 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.
Federal Labor has pledged to establish a new low-cost small claims jurisdiction to deal with wage underpayments, which will "sit alongside" the Fair Work Commission.
