The Law Reform Commission has recommended legal changes to substantially narrow the circumstances in which religious educational institutions can discriminate against their workers.
The FWC bench appointed to scrutinise a paid agent's future involvement in adverse action and unfair dismissal cases has asked a first tranche of 46 applicants to explain why they need to be represented by a firm recently described as having engaged in "unethical" practices.
The High Court will consider whether employers' duty of care and consequent exposure to damages extends to providing "safe" disciplinary and dismissal processes that protect sacked workers from psychiatric injury.
The FWC has found understaffing weighed heavily on the mind of a custody officer sacked by Ventia for headbutting a door in frustration at a prisoner on the other side, noting it might be "unfair to apply the standards expected of angels to mere humans".
The FSU has told a Senate inquiry that employees suffering from perimenopause or menopausal symptoms should have a right to apply for flexible work, while Maurice Blackburn says an ability to work from home, access extra paid leave and take longer breaks greatly improves engagement.
An employer has failed to convince the FWC that it should reduce a worker's redundancy payment from 13 weeks to six, finding that although it secured another job for him on the same pay, losing private use of a company car meant the role was not "substantially the same".
The FWC has rejected an employer's bid to wind up a general manager's unfair dismissal case after finding that neither of two settlement offers could be regarded as binding.
A European expatriate who regularly swore at his Australian subordinates in an apparent attempt to spur them to achieve work standards expected in his homeland has lost his adverse action case against his former employer, after a court ruled his behaviour warranted summary dismissal.
A small not-for-profit organisation with no shortage of valid reasons for dismissing a finance manager who "disappeared" during an audit period has nevertheless been ordered to pay her more than $12,000 compensation after the FWC found its executive director should not have acted as "judge, jury and executioner" by overseeing the entire disciplinary process.
The FWC is seeking feedback on options to rein in "challenging paid agent conduct" including new laws to establish a registration system and make it clear the tribunal can consider representatives' "capacity" when granting permission, plus a code of conduct.