The CFMMEU has told the High Court an ABCC appeal raises the prospect of "double punishment" by inflicting maximum penalties for even minor contraventions based on past recidivism, with a risk that it could encourage contravenors to commit more serious breaches.
An academic's $2 million adverse action case against a university's HR department has been transferred to the Federal Court, a judge observing that its outcome has "significant" implications for the tertiary sector's ability to scrap tenured positions funded by endowments.
A Federal Court judge has set a limit on the construction watchdog's use of anti-picketing laws to bring unions to heel, observing that "while picketing involves obstruction, not every obstruction is a picket".
In a decision said to have "massively" raised the bar on compensation amounts, Queensland's Industrial Court has boosted a "manifestly inadequate" $50,000 payout to nearly $160,000 for a casual laundry worker who faced demands for s-x in return for work.
A senior FWC member has decided to forge ahead and determine whether a "deactivated" Uber driver is an employee, rejecting a bid to stay his unfair dismissal claim until the Federal Court tackles the question in a case he is pursuing with the Rideshare Driver Network.
The High Court's Rossato judgment is already having a knock-on effect, with a FWC full bench questioning its effect on Deliveroo's appeal of a finding that a rider was an employee and proposing not to determine it until the High Court decides two more cases.
IR academics say the High Court's "revolutionary" approach in Rossato signals an intention to rewrite the rules for determining employment status, with potentially dire consequences for gig workers and others seeking to challenge their characterisation.
A full Federal Court has quashed a software company's $5.2 million general protections payout and ordered a retrial after finding that the judge in awarding record compensation to the former Victorian state manager failed to provide adequate reasons in his 350-page decision.
Uber is again facing a challenge to claims it has no employment relationship with drivers, a rideshare workers' group going after the company for alleged record keeping and payslip breaches in a case seeking penalties to boost its advocacy war chest.
Qantas says it will appeal today's Federal Court finding it breached adverse action provisions in outsourcing the remainder of its ground handling jobs while grappling with the pandemic, maintaining it was motivated "only by lawful commercial reasons".
