The FWC has redrawn an employer's "line in the sand" over the use of mobile phones while driving forklifts, ordering it to reinstate and compensate a worker after concluding he was harshly sacked for a first safety policy breach.
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.
A tribunal has ordered a restaurant manager accused of drugging and raping a bartender to pay aggravated and other damages of $150,000, after leaving the vulnerable international student too traumatised to keep working in the hospitality sector.
The FWC has ordered indemnity costs against a financial advisor held to have pursued a "meritless" unfair dismissal application nine months after resigning and a vexatious appeal because he believed his former employer was backing out of a separation deal.
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.
Employers once said to be facing up to $38 billion in casuals' backpay claims have welcomed today's High Court confirmation that contracts are decisive in determining employment types, while workers' representatives have come out swinging.
The High Court has today unanimously upheld labour hire company Workpac's challenge to a finding that coal mineworker Robert Rossato was entitled to paid leave while engaged as a casual on consecutive contracts for almost four years.
The FWC has blocked a large employer's bid to move workers on to higher-paid staff roles as part of a restructure, telling the company the decision will "increase [its] cost benefits".
In a decision highlighting the challenges facing employers attempting to manage stand-downs during the pandemic, the FWC has ordered a global aviation ground services company to compensate a part-time worker after favouring more valued employees.
