Workers on "outer limits" fixed-term contracts and long-term casuals have been given more latitude to pursue unfair dismissal claims after an FWC full bench decision that brings the accepted precedent on employer-initiated terminations into line with Fair Work Act provisions.
Victoria International Container Terminal is today calling on the State's Supreme Court to recognise VTHC secretary Luke Hilakari as a representative of all protesters gathering in support of the MUA in its dispute at the Port of Melbourne, and to stop them coming within a 100 metre "exclusion zone".
Former Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour says he was acting out of concern for his national compensation manager's welfare rather than acceding to union demands when he sacked him and shut down his cost-saving project the same day he received a call from an "angry" union leader with whom he'd previously had hostile exchanges.
Information Commissioner Tim Pilgrim has taken into account CFMEU construction and general division Victorian branch leader John Setka's threats to ABCC inspectors at a recent rally in finding it against the public interest to disclose the identities and contact details of the watchdog's personnel that the union sought under FoI provisions.
The ACTU says a High Court decision that makes it harder for unions to take protected industrial action has made Australia's workplace laws "much more oppressive" at a time when strikes are already at record lows.
A home-based sales representative has been compensated after the FWC found that he was sacked within a day of receiving a "manifestly unreasonable" ultimatum to pack up his life in Byron Bay and return to work in his employer's Sydney office.
The FWC has confirmed it will conduct a hearing on the CFMEU, MUA and TCFU merger on February 2 in Melbourne, subject to any Federal Court application for an inquiry into the unions' ballots within 30 days of their declaration.
The High Court has directed an FWC full bench to re-determine whether a controversial Aldi agreement for a new distribution centre passes the better off overall test, but it has agreed with the retailer that deals covering new enterprises can extend to employees yet to work there.
