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A major fruit and vegetable grower defending one of the biggest workplace s-xual harassment and assault cases in Australia says it took "immediate steps" to remove the accused workers and it no longer employs them.

A Clive Palmer-owned business must pay a worker almost $40,000 for dismissing him by email along with 125 other employees, claiming he failed to work his hours amid site-wide fraud, theft and dishonesty,, and then asking him to re-apply for his job 20 minutes later.

A football club's "deficient" investigation and lack of procedural fairness rendered unfair its sacking of a worker for spreading "false and degrading s-xualised rumours" in the workplace, the FWC has found.

IR Minister Tony Burke says the Albanese Government is "not there yet" in talks with key crossbenchers ahead of this week's Senate debate on its Closing Loopholes No 2 legislation, while consultations on including a "right to disconnect" are tackling the role of fines.

The mental health effects of domestic violence justified a 28-day extension for a worker's unfair dismissal claim, the FWC has ruled.

The FWC is seeking feedback by March 12 on the possible incorporation into modern awards of key recommendations of the recent Senate work and care inquiry, including rights to work from home and to disconnect from the workplace.

About 37% of workers are working regularly from home, down from 40% at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, but well above the pre-COVID-19 level of 32%, according to new ABS data.

The FWC has reinstated a Sydney Trains worker who used cocaine while on leave, after lambasting the employer for not making it clear that it tests for use rather than impairment and for failing to take on board earlier criticism of its drug and alcohol policy.

A Federal Court judge has today reserved on an application to restrain the UWU from dismissing two organisers who claim it subjected them to adverse action for backing a majority support petition as part of a campaign for a new in-house enterprise agreement, but the union claims their case is "untenable" and should be thrown out.

The NTEU has contributed to a doubling of Indigenous employment in tertiary education over the past two decades, by creating a "unique" union structure and using collective bargaining to establish employment targets and other Indigenous-specific provisions in enterprise agreements, an academic says.