Rotary International's "egregious" dismissal of a Sydney-based manager who initiated an adverse action claim has earned it a $50,000 fine from a judge who singled out the organisation's US-based No.2 for her role in a breach that "struck at the heart" of Australian workplace laws.
An FWC full bench has allowed a casual worker to claim unfair dismissal after finding a senior tribunal member wrongly focussed on her irregular "pattern" of days and hours in holding she had not met the minimum employment period.
The law firm behind a Crown class action says legislative change is needed after a full Federal Court quashed a decision that voided former employees' confidentiality obligations in order to aid the efficient administration of justice.
In a decision closely examining the FWC's power to award costs, a reinstated worker who was the beneficiary of an earlier ruling has on rehearing failed to persuade the Commission that her employer either unreasonably defended the unfairness of its actions or ignored its poor prospects of success.
New rules for recording the working hours of junior lawyers and paralegals are set to take effect from March, despite protests from major law firms, while up to a million clerical employees are set to be subject to similar provisions.
Service station owners who required a visa-dependent employee to hand over his tax refund and cover the cost of drive-offs have been ordered to compensate the former console operator and his fellow-worker wife more than $50,000 after a court found them accessorily liable for underpayments.
In yet another decision highlighting the potential pitfalls of social media use, the FWC has dismissed the extension of time application of a beauty therapist who claimed to suffer from agoraphobia but posted regular images of herself out with friends and "feeling fabulous".
The FWC has taken the rare step of revoking the entry permit of a CFMMEU official who aggressively swore at a subcontractor at a road construction site before asking if he was going to use the hammer he was carrying "to smash me".
An EPA worker believed to have contracted Legionnaires' disease by walking past Sydney Town Hall during an outbreak has won reinstatement after establishing that it caused him to suffer major depression that contributed to his poor work performance.
