In a wide-ranging IR Bill, Queensland's Palaszczuk Labor Government is taking a national lead in empowering the State IRC to arbitrate s-xual harassment cases and set minimum standards for gig delivery workers, while seeking also to rein in unregistered unions.
The Perrottet Government in NSW says it is moving to massively increase fines for unlawful industrial action to send a "message" ahead of a teachers' strike, while a commissioner who blocked part of a PSA strike says it refused to meaningfully engage with the union on wages.
A 20% pay cut imposed on a general manager while his employer shut its doors due to COVID-19 restrictions breached his contract and did not qualify as a JobKeeper-enabling direction, WA's IRC has held.
A tribunal has backed the sacking of a Queensland police officer who helped his wife avoid a possible drink driving charge after crashing while almost three times over the limit, observing in passing that not all his character references assisted his case.
A tribunal has upheld the suspension without pay of a public sector employee accused of s-xually assaulting three women while moonlighting as a rideshare driver.
The NSW IRC has upheld the sacking of a prison officer who assaulted a colleague outside work, observing that the victim's evidence should not be "impugned" just because she remained in an abusive relationship.
A child protection public servant who claimed on Facebook that the military would remove kids from unvaccinated parents and depicted the former NSW premier as Hitler has won compensation after a tribunal found circumstances rendered her dismissal harsh.
South Australia's new Premier, Peter Malinauskas, takes office on a platform that includes introducing jail time for the worst cases of wage theft, creating an offence of industrial manslaughter and extending labour hire regulation across all industries.
In an important ruling on the NSW IRC's jurisdictional powers, the High Court has found that a since-repealed provision did not prevent the State tribunal considering a police officer's unfair dismissal case that challenged his forced retirement on medical grounds.
