In a decision underlining the challenges for the Commission in managing vulnerable self-represented employees in its bullying jurisdiction, a full bench has rejected an employee's claim that a tribunal member's procedures were responsible for her mental distress.
An FWC full bench led by President Iain Ross has sent a powerful signal to members to back their own judgement in inherent requirements cases where there is conflicting medical evidence, describing a previous full bench decision ceding the final say to employers as "plainly wrong".
As independent federal MP Cathy McGowan vows to push for a new ministerial sex ban to be extended to all those working in Parliament, an IR lawyer says the approach has little practical use in the private sector where the focus is on disclosure.
The Tasmanian ALP has announced it will introduce industrial manslaughter laws and consider a labour hire licensing scheme if it wins the March 3 state election.
The FWC has upheld Bluescope Steel's sacking of a long-serving employee for his "appalling" timekeeping, but has found the company didn't have enough evidence to establish that he defecated in the workplace shower.
The FWC has highlighted the additional credibility provided when employers test for drugs in accordance with the Australian Standard, in upholding a multinational mining company's sacking of a marijuana smoker who breached its zero tolerance policy.
A senior FWC member has upheld the sacking of an underground mineworker who tested positive for THC and continued to have elevated levels of the drug in his system 22 days later, finding it the "only course of action open" to the employer.
A union's liability for entry breaches by its officials has been underlined by a court hitting the CFMEU with a $200,000 fine for disrupting a concrete pour on a major rail project over alleged safety concerns.
An experienced meatworker's impulse to help out a stressed colleague without taking safety precautions prescribed by his employer's "cardinal rules" justified severing his employment, the FWC has found.
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.
