Court and tribunal decisions page 171 of 372

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"Dysfunctional" union fined $445K for reporting breaches

The CEPU has been fined $445,000 for historic reporting breaches, a Federal Court judge observing that the penalty would have been higher had the union not moved to clean up its act by employing a compliance officer.

Pregnant worker's dismissal "the very definition of unfair"

The FWC has found an employer's failure to consult a pregnant worker before abruptly announcing her redundancy to be the "very definition of unfair", rejecting its submissions that a series of meetings were adequate.

Company fails to block FWC intervention on pay downgrade

An employer that unilaterally reduced the classification levels of two workers previously handed a pay upgrade has failed to convince the FWC it had no power to intervene in a contractual issue "masquerading" as an enterprise agreement dispute.

Court grounds pilots' adverse action case

A pilots' union that established in the High Court that it could pursue a case on behalf eligible of non-members has lost its substantive case accusing budget airline Regional Express of threatening adverse action against cadets who exercise a workplace right.

Court fines AWU for adverse action against members

The Federal Court has today ordered the AWU to pay an $18,000 penalty for pressing charges under its rules against two members who refused to support industrial action against Orica.

Vegan beliefs protected under UK workplace equality laws

In the wake of the UK's employment tribunal ruling that "ethical veganism" is a protected philosophical belief in the workplace, a Seyfarth Shaw partner says that there might be scope under state and federal discrimination laws to advance a similar claim in Australia.

Bench corrects "counter-intuitive" compensation ruling

A tribunal member "counter-intuitively" refused to award compensation to an unfairly dismissed employee after failing to assess financial loss and wrongly asserting that she had admitted to competing priorities, an FWC full bench has found.

FWC deep-dives on nature of work

The importance of 'choice versus direction' in determining whether employees are working or not has been highlighted in an FWC decision considering the case of boat masters and crew having their unpaid meal breaks interrupted to assist passengers on multi-day dive trips.

$10K for manager sacked while on sick leave

A home improvement company had a valid reason to sack a business manager who recklessly approved credit for a struggling customer, but the FWC has held that its process in dismissing him while on sick leave rendered it unfair.

Bank not in deal breach despite IT worker's cloud-based fears

An IT specialist with a major bank has failed to persuade the FWC that deployment to a new cloud-first role represented an agreement breach because it placed unreasonable demands on his fading capacity to learn.