Coles, the SDA and the AWU have today asked an FWC full bench to refuse the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union permission to appear on behalf of two employees seeking to intervene in an application to terminate the supermarket giant's 2011 enterprise agreement.
The FWC has determined that Woolworths was justified in sacking a petrol station employee for refusing to hand over money and cigarettes to a "difficult" customer, who then walked off without paying for a Dare iced coffee and spinach ricotta roll.
The FWC has issued an interim anti-bullying order restraining the co-owner of a tyre business and his employee nephew from communicating with or being within 10 metres of each other, noting that a separate court order for the nephew not to commit "family violence" against his uncle had done little to improve a combative workplace atmosphere.
Expanding on its theme that the wages system is "broken", the ACTU will seek to change workplace laws so workers and unions can bargain "where the power is" across industries and franchised employers, rather than being limited to the enterprise level.
A government department's failure to establish sufficient distance from an 'independent' appeal panel has seen a court reject its claim for legal professional privilege over advice disclosed to an employee.
The FWC has acknowledged its phone system may flummox workers from non-English speaking backgrounds, allowing a "technologically illiterate" cleaner to challenge her dismissal despite filing her application two days' late.
The FWC has confirmed it has no authority to handle disputes about flexible workplace arrangements rejected by employers on "reasonable business grounds" unless specifically empowered to do so by an agreement.
The Federal Court has ordered former HSU national secretary and ex-Federal Labor MP Craig Thomson's employer – a company allegedly run by his wife – to make fortnightly deductions for the payment of $175,550 in legal costs owed to the FWC.
WorkSafe Victoria is "considering its options" after expressing disappointment at Friday's full Federal Court finding that a CFMEU official needed to have a federal entry permit to assist a health and safety representative when invited onto a Victorian construction site.
