Institutions, tribunals, courts page 140 of 355

A full Federal Court has cleared the way for ROC to recommence probing historic AWU donations to GetUp! and ALP campaigns, holding it did not need to suspect breaches of financial probity in order to have reasonable grounds.

The FWC has ordered a recruitment company to immediately end the stand-down of a state manager after rejecting its claim that COVID-19 left her with no work, finding instead that it sought to force her to resign.

The ACCC's landmark criminal cartel case against the CFMMEU and its construction and general division ACT branch secretary, Jason O'Mara, has been set down for a two-week committal hearing starting in mid-February, while the regulator has secured anti-price-fixing undertakings from roofing contractors it caught out on Facebook.

In a decision underlining the perils faced by workers who are not covered by awards or enterprise agreements, the FWC has found an employer had no statutory obligation to consult an employee about its plans to make him redundant.

The Federal Court has penalised the CFMMEU and three construction division WA branch officials $180,000 for organising a half-day strike in 2018 over redundancy pay for Perth Airport rail link workers, 39 of whom also copped $4000 fines.

RBA's modest wage growth hopes; Case to test employers' vaccination policies; Clerks award flexibilities extended until March; and Grace retains Palaszczuk Government's IR portfolio.

Multinational cosmetics company Lush has backpaid workers almost $4.5 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO after the lack of an HR department and training, along with a moribund manual payroll system, led to widespread underpayments.

A full Federal Court has confirmed that 150 workers were entitled to be paid for the 20-minute bus ride to a major energy project's security gate at the end of each shift, after one of the judges rejected a request to recuse himself because he had acted for the employer during negotiations for the deal at the heart of the dispute.

A court has revived a former national swim coach's underpayment claims, granting him leave to challenge a finding that an award did not cover his role.

An FWC full bench has emphasised that the pattern of a casual's hours need not be consistent or predictable for their work to be regular and systematic, clearing the way for a full-time worker first engaged as a casual to file an unfair dismissal claim.