The High Court will decide next Thursday whether BHP Coal took adverse action against a mineworker when it sacked him for holding up an anti-"scab" sign at a picket in Queensland's Bowen Basin in 2012.
The Federal Court has criticised a lower court judge for making gratuitous comments about a barrister, but has rejected her argument that he should have stood down from her client's adverse action case because he was biased.
The High Court has reserved its decision on whether BHP Coal fell foul of the Fair Work Act's adverse action provisions by sacking a worker for breaching its workplace conduct policy after he held up an anti-"scab" sign at a picket.
A part-time HR manager's bullying claim against her chief executive backfired when her employer discovered while investigating her complaint that she had been using its resources to do work for other organisations.
The Federal Court has raised some important questions over whether employees have a "workplace right" to talk to the media about conditions in their workplaces.
Allowing a worker to switch from pursuing an unfair dismissal to a general protections claim after unsuccessful conciliation would allow him "two bites of the cherry", the Fair Work Commission has ruled.
The Federal Circuit Court has hit a transport operator who sacked a driver for taking carer's leave and then terrorised him, his family and his union solicitor when he instituted legal proceedings with close to the maximum penalty for unlawful adverse action.
A court has found that a worker who was asked to look for alternative employment due to his heart condition was dismissed, rejecting his employer's argument that his job ended by "mutual agreement".
In its first ruling on the issue, the Fair Work Commission has decided that unions can include multiple employees in a single general protections application.
A court has found that a law firm acted quickly to investigate claims of harassment by one of its solicitors and was entitled to treat emails from her stating that the employment relationship had broken down as a resignation.
