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Confusing evidence from Rio Tinto experts might have contributed to a senior FWC member incorrectly assessing the number of safety breaches committed by a dismissed mechanic, a Commission full bench has found.

The FWC has rejected the ACTU's bid for a new entitlement for working parents and carers to work flexible hours, but has provisionally indicated it intends to publish a model award clause that will extend the right to request flexible work to casuals with six months service and require employers to provide more explanation for refusing requests.

An employer that slashed its general manager's earnings from $180,000 to $120,000 in the five months leading up to his dismissal has argued that he was paid under a "variable wages agreement" that exceeded the high income threshold when averaged over the year.

In a move that underlines corporate Australia's flight from enterprise bargaining, Domino's Pizza Enterprises has withdrawn from its proposed workplace agreement and will now stick with the fast food award.

A former Flight Attendants Association manager is testing the union's ability to claim a small business exemption for her unfair dismissal claim, with the FWC ordering its international and national divisions to provide pay records and meeting notes about the salaries of all elected officials.

The South Australian branch of the AWU has refused to participate in a hearing into a major grain company's successful agreement termination bid, telling the FWC it has "no confidence" in a legal process for employer terminations that unfairly bolsters their bargaining position.

The Registered Organisations Commission has launched a formal investigation into credit card use and loans possibly paid by the CFMEU mining and energy division's Queensland district to its officials.

The Fair Work Commission has blocked an attempt by 83 employees of an oil and gas refinery at Geelong from resigning en masse as members of an in-house Fire Auxiliary Team in a disagreement over safety and training.

A review of the 2015 amendments to the Fair Work Act's greenfields agreements provisions has rejected union pleas to axe "last offer" arbitration - despite a failure by employers to utilise it - and has recommended reducing from six months to three the "negotiating period" before the FWC can break deadlocks.

In the wake of the public spotlight on the Qantas "inclusive language" guidelines, one of its baggage handlers has failed to convince the FWC that tearing a colleague's shirt, shoving him against a locker and telling him to f-ck off back to his country were not sackable offences but rather a bit of "argy bargy" between friends, consistent with the workplace culture.