The NSW Court of Appeal has reserved judgment on the PSA's challenge to a record $84,000 fine for contravening court orders and pressing ahead with a Valentine's Day strike in protest at the State Government's plans to privatise disability support work.
In an indication of the harder line the FWC is taking on allowing lawyers to appear, it has rejected a bid for representation by a large well-resourced employer with thousands of employees that claimed its in-house IR and HR personnel lacked sufficient advocacy experience to defend an unfair dismissal case.
The FWC has upheld the sacking of a senior ETU delegate who objected to his employer's introduction of GPS tracking, finding he deliberately wrapped his device in a Twisties bag to conceal his whereabouts and falsified service records when absent from work.
The concept of the "farm gate" is virtual rather than physical in the horticultural sector, an FWC full bench has found in a coverage decision it backdated by eight years to ensure employers are not exposed to backpay claims.
United Voice is today staging a protest outside a Melbourne restaurant at the centre of a bartender's underpayments claim and says its investigation of the state's hospitality sector exposes the city as the "wage theft capital of Australia".
In a ruling that underlines the Fair Work Ombudsman's pursuit of accessorial liability against advisors, a court has for the first time imposed a fine on an accountancy firm involved in an employer's underpayments.
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash faces another grilling in Senate Estimates hearings over the AFP's raids on the AWU at the behest of the Registered Organisations Commission.
The High Court has refused to grant special leave to appeal a full Federal Court finding that a CFMEU official needed a federal entry permit to assist a health and safety representative when he was invited onto a construction site under Victorian OHS laws.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says "remarkable" growth in employers analysing their data for gender pay gaps means more than half now have formal strategies to address imbalances, but its annual scorecard reveals the overall $26,527 gender pay gap has decreased only marginally.
