FWO celebrations over winning almost $400,000 in penalties against a travel company and its director for cash-back arrangements have been tempered by a court's observation that it might have been wise to secure immunity for the two visa-seeking workers concerned before initiating litigation.
In a decision that might convince employers to reconsider using client feedback as a basis for KPIs, the FWC has highlighted Audi's "astounding" absence of HR specialists in finding it unfairly dismissed a service advisor for failing to meet benchmark customer survey scores.
Wesfarmers subsidiary Kmart wrongly permitted new recruits to vote for its latest agreement even though they were not engaged until after the access period, according to an FWC full bench that has nevertheless quashed an earlier rejection of the deal and invited submissions on an undertaking to provide choice of super fund.
A gym must compensate a martial arts instructor for taking the "unnecessarily harsh" step of summarily sacking him, despite the FWC finding it within its rights to give him his marching orders for constantly using his phone while supervising classes.
In a decision noting that workers cannot hold employers to promises in a "changing world" in which they must move with the times, the FWC has held that a call centre had a valid reason to sack a contact officer who refused to learn new skills, but a "ruthless" process made it unfair.
A court has found that an external HR advisor played a central role in the unlawful dismissal of a yoga instructor who complained about her employer failing to pay award rates.
The FWC has upheld the dismissal of an Energy Australia employee who told one colleague she could not get pregnant due to her sexuality and suggested to another that he was related to Deepak Chopra because of his Indian descent.
NUW deregistered, UWU out of the blocks; Wrong rate claim sinks offshore deal, Bench rules; Google no answer to getting dismissal right; and Cop's bid for early long service leave rejected.
The FWC has found "overly harsh and unreasonable" the demotion of a correctional officer for using excessive force on a detainee, while upholding his employer's misconduct findings.
The Federal Court has rejected a bid by the FWO and CFMMEU to upset a major labour hire company's treatment of workers as independent contractors, finding the service agreement signed by the parties transparently spelt out the true nature of their relationship.
