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A law firm chief executive's "abrasive" email to 80 lawyers warning that "the lion will soon be catching up with any sick zebras" has come back to bite him, the FWC finding that he unfairly dismissed a senior associate given two weeks' notice for allegedly threatening legal action.

The FWC has rejected an IR practitioner's bid to shift from casual to continuing employment, finding that even if he was eligible, his employer's agreement provided no implicit "right" to convert.

Magnum forcing agreement overhaul, says Streets; Toll slapped for refusing casual conversion; Court imposes "unusual" penalty for CFMEU coercion.

The Federal Court has dismissed the nursing union's bid to stop Bupa cutting jobs, finding that 23 potential redundancies in a workforce of 3000 did not constitute a "major" change that would trigger an agreement's consultation clause.

The FWC has upheld the sacking of NUW NSW organiser Nick Belan over admissions to the Heydon Royal Commission he misused his union credit card, slamming his "complete disregard" for his duty.

The AMWU is encouraging GM Holden workers affected by today's assembly plant closure to suspend their memberships rather than quit altogether as the union looks to staunch losses that look set to see it scrap the current division structure in favour of a national entity with state branches.

The Federal court system faces an unprecedented half-day strike by support staff this afternoon over stalled pay negotiations which have left them without a rise for four years.

In a landmark judgment upholding a casual employee's right to convert to permanency on a "like for like" basis, the Federal Court has concluded it should fine Toll more than $40,000 and order it to compensate a freight handler for refusing to grant his request for full-time employment from May last year.

A company that allegedly told a 62-year old salesperson that he was too old, too deaf and was "hobbling around" with a "broken back" he would use to make a workers compensation claim has been ordered to pay $15,000 for "pain, suffering and humiliation" as part of a larger damages payout for age and disability discrimination.

In the FWO's first underpayment prosecution relying on race discrimination prohibitions in the Fair Work Act, a court has found a Tasmanian hotel and its manager deliberately short-changed a head chef and kitchen hand and expected them to work long hours, six days a week because of their Malaysian nationality and Chinese race.