In a decision assessing how long a valid reason remains "current", the FWC has overlooked serious procedural deficiencies to back a landscaping business's summary sacking of a gardener almost two months after he called a colleague a "fat exploiter of foreigners".
Mining giant Peabody has asked the High Court to weigh in on the "critical question" of when redundancies can be considered genuine and the extent of FWC powers to determine how employers might avoid job losses.
A FWC senior member has thrown out the unfair dismissal case of a Sri Lankan worker paid $300 a month as she did not meet the minimum employment period, but will refer it to the general manager for advice or to notify the authorities.
Employers have succeeded in varying an award clause a FWC full bench agrees could produce the "absurd" result of workers receiving five times the prescribed minimum rates.
A FWC presidential member has taken exception to a HSU official's description of a clinical handover area as a meal room suitable for conducting meetings, dismissing it as a "self-serving label. . . border[ing] on dishonest".
The principal contractor on Australia's largest energy transmission project has been cleared to continue its pursuit of orders blocking the ETU's expansion into the renewable energy sector, as the union engages in alleged "guerrilla" tactics of disruption and delay.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a supervisor for changing the ratio of carers for an NDIS participant without permission and leaving a colleague in an unsafe situation.
The FWC has found two types of proposed industrial action against an employer unlawful because they lack specificity, but has also labelled the company "disingenuous" for objecting to the original PABO, withdrawing its concerns and then re-ventilating them a month later.
The FWC has observed that an employer "is not a charity", in rejecting a claim from a former risk manager for an insolvent cryptocurrency trader that his award-covered role did not change despite successive $50,000 promotions over just 15 months.
Australia's labour productivity growth is close to the top of the league table for comparable advanced economies, trailing the leading US by a small margin over the past 15 years, according to a new FWC publication.
