A Melbourne hotel that claimed an inability to engage in face-to-face discussions before making a chef redundant during the city's second COVID-19 lockdown must compensate her for unfair dismissal, after falling foul of award consultation obligations.
A worker who describes herself as a "late starter" is seeking either reinstatement or almost $1 million, claiming the Defence Department dismissed her for numerous prohibited reasons including her age and complaints about being denied flexible working hours.
The FWC has upbraided construction company Hansen Yuncken for its "callous" and unfair sacking of a "naïve" trainee who nonetheless provided it with a valid reason by insisting on indefinite unpaid leave to avoid lengthy public transport commutes during COVID-19.
An HR manager is suing a biotechnology company for humiliating high-rotation desk moves and allegedly hiring a superior for her to report to as a "contrivance" to make her role redundant after she raised pandemic-related OHS and JobKeeper issues.
A BHP subsidiary has been hit with a slew of bargaining orders after an FWC presidential member found it repeatedly shifted the goalposts over two years to delay making an agreement with coal mine supervisors.
The FWC has ordered an aged care provider to restore leave days to employees it directed to stay away from work over COVID-19 transmission fears, observing "it's just the right thing to do".
In a case likely to be closely watched by employers considering mandatory coronavirus vaccinations, the FWC will probe whether Ozcare unfairly sacked a long serving care assistant who refused a compulsory flu shot on allergy grounds, while the Commission has also weighed-in on the contentious issue of compulsory jabs for Santas.
A five-member FWC full bench has confirmed the provisional view it reached in August last year that there is not a strong enough case, with the COVID-19 pandemic relatively well-controlled in Australia, to insert paid pandemic in awards covering paramedics and NDIS, home care and patient transport workers.
The FWC has found employers are not obliged to keep workers on the payroll because of JobKeeper's availability, but has awarded a manager compensation for unfair dismissal that included 24 weeks of the job subsidy, because retaining him would have been "entirely consistent" with the scheme's objectives.
Home-based workers will be able to negotiate their preferred hours and breaks under COVID-19-related award flexibilities likely to be approved by the FWC this week.
