In a significant ruling on dismissals deemed harsh by the FWC, a full bench has endorsed the "unorthodox" approach taken by a member who ordered the reinstatement of a forklift driver who breached an employer's "no mobile phones" policy.
Mining unions have failed to convince a senior FWC member that BHP's vaccination mandate breaches the Privacy Act and that it would be reasonable to let workers confirm their inoculation status via the same check-in method they use to enter a pub.
The Federal Court has today thrown out an urgent interlocutory bid to stop Qantas Group dismissing more than 20 employees who failed to meet its mid-November vaccination deadline.
The FWC has "reluctantly" held that Airservices Australia's agreement does not prevent it from investigating the alleged out-of-hours touching of a worker's breast in a rideshare, despite dealing with it "to finality" four years ago.
The FWC has declined to extend time for an unvaccinated worker who claimed he lodged his claim late because of the theft of 45 one-kilogram silver bars from his home, while it has upheld a nursing home's sacking of a maintenance manager who failed to comply with a State Government inoculation mandate.
A tribunal has upheld Queensland Health's rejection of a HR advisor's bid to continue working from home when she relocates to NSW, on the basis that face-to-face contact is a requirement of the role.
BHP says it will ask 35 Mt Arthur coal mine workers why it should not sack them if they continue to defy its vaccination mandate after engaging in a fresh FWC-assisted consultation process.
A paramedic who claims an Ambulance Victoria IR strategist refused to permit her to take long service leave while she waits for the non-MRNA Novavax has failed to obtain interim orders stopping it from dismissing her while she participates in a group challenge to its vaccine mandate.
BHP says it is working with the FWC and the CFMMEU's mining and energy division on further workplace consultation to enable the introduction of a COVID-19 vaccination mandate at its Mt Arthur coal mine in the Upper Hunter Valley.
The key lesson from last week's Mt Arthur ruling by a five-member FWC full bench is that employers that impose vaccination mandates not required by public health orders must comply with consultation obligations, according to the coal mining union's legal director.
