The "overwhelming majority" of employers should assume they have no power to force employees to vaccinate against COVID-19, IR Minister Christian Porter said today as his agencies issued new advice on workplace inoculations.
A veteran garbo has lost his right to a $70,000 accrued personal leave payout after the NSW IRC upheld his sacking for riding on the back of a garbage truck, finding he held a cavalier attitude and lacked insight, despite expressions of regret.
A casual cook has been cleared to contest her dismissal after the FWC found she was caught between the competing interests of two workplaces in responding to the Victorian Government's single employer directive at the height of that State's COVID-19 outbreak.
The FWC has rejected a long-serving worker's portrayal of herself as a "victim" of powerful HR forces, finding her displeasure at being asked to account for money raised for a deceased colleague's family led her into serious misconduct.
The FWC has reinforced the importance of following safety guidelines to the letter in upholding the dismissal of a scaffolder whose sore hands proved to be the result of hepatitis rather than a head "bang" he took more than a week to report.
More than half of private sector clerks included in a survey to inform a possible coronavirus-driven award variation have been working from home since the middle of last year and almost three quarters of employers intend to let them continue doing so at least some of the time.
Dairy cooperative Norco claims it sacked an HR advisor because she told colleagues its board was considering dismissing its new chief executive and warned them they were on his "hit list", rather than in retaliation for her role in probing complaints against him.
A worker sacked after allegedly masturbating at work when he claimed he was scratching a persistent rash between his pubic bone and belly button has failed to establish that his employer discriminated against him on the basis of an impairment.
In further evidence of shifting workplace standards, the chief executive of ASX-listed Cleanaway Waste has resigned after last year volunteering to forgo $2 million in performance-linked shares following complaints about his "overly assertive behaviour".
IR Minister Christian Porter says that talks will soon start with employers and unions to work through the complex legal and workplace safety issues surrounding the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
