WFD: A Fair Work Commission (FWC) senior full bench has cast doubt on a broad interpretation of the Australian Public Service code of conduct that requires employees to behave at “all times” with the highest ethical standards (WF 07/11/2014). However, it declined to rule on the matter, saying the case was not an appropriate vehicle to d...
Public sector's broad intrusion into employees' private lives questioned
↧
↧
Treating doctor advice overrides direction to return to work: FWC
WFD: The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has found the Australian Tax Office (ATO) unfairly sacked an accountant because its direction for him to return to work after an absence of almost five years due to depression was not reasonable. FWC held ATO's direction was unreasonable because the accountant's treating doctor had advised him his condition would...
↧
Electricity unions biggest NSW ALP donors
WFD: Donation disclosures reveal unions representing electrical workers were the biggest donors to the ALP, as the March 28 NSW election shapes up as a referendum on the Baird government's planned privatisation of electricity assets. The disclosures released on March 12 show the biggest donors to Labor in the period July 1, 2014 to March 1, 2015 we...
↧
Employer's sham dismissal scheme exposed
WFD: In what the Fair Work Commission (FWC) has described as an “extraordinary” and “bizarre” case, an employer has been found to have recruited an employee into an elaborate scheme to “fake” his own dismissal before then actually dismissing that employee. NSW small business Powr Electronics - headed by Dragi Pan...
↧
PC approach to min wage is skewed: academic
WFD: The Productivity Commission (PC) has adopted a misleading approach to the question of the minimum wage in its workplace relations inquiry and is an inadequate avenue to push through changes, an academic has argued. Australian National University research fellow Rob Bray, whose 2013 min wage paper is quoted in the PC issues paper ( WF 31/05/201...
↧
↧
Uni did not cause psychiatric injury of bullying complainant: court
WFD: Curtin University of Technology did not cause the psychiatric injury of a lecturer who developed depression after his dismissal by failing to deal with his bullying claims, the WA Supreme Court has held. The decision highlighted the need to bring breach of contract claims within time, as the lecturer's case was made significantly more difficul...
↧
Late offer made alternative job unsuitable: bench
WFD: The Fair Work Commission (FWC) full bench majority has held an offer of alternative employment given after notice of termination for redundancy is too late to be “acceptable” for the purposes of reducing redundancy pay. In August 2013, Australian Commercial Catering Pty Ltd (ACC) told Marcelia Powell and Maria Togia it had lost a c...
↧
Full bench raises bar for estimating time left in employment
WFD: A Fair Work Commission full bench has upheld the appeal of an unfairly dismissed worker who received just $1,280 compensation because the cmn had calculated he would only have remained employed for eight weeks. The senior bench held the cmn requires “cogent evidence” to establish that an employee dismissed without valid reason woul...
↧
AMMA pushes overhaul of Fair Work institutions
The Australian Mines and Metals Association (AMMA) has argued the generalist “fair work” slogan describes a failed organising concept for regulating workplace relations (WR) which should be dumped for a new specialised system of tribunals. AMMA's submission to the Productivity Commission (PC)'s workplace inquiry proposed a new series of...
↧
↧
Conditions can't bar effective reinstatement: bench
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) can make provisos which are ancillary and give effect to reinstatement orders but mustn't attach conditions which effectively bar a full return to work, a FWC full bench has held. The bench held a condition that reinstatement be “subject to a risk assessment to be conducted” by an injured worker's employer...
↧
ABCC bill faces defeat despite Lazarus defection
The bill to reintroduce the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) faces likely Senate defeat, with three key cross-benchers now publicly opposed to it. Last week Senators Jacquie Lambie and John Madigan bucketed the bill in Senate debate, criticising it for singling out unions and not corporate corruption and for its differential t...
↧
FWC can include penalty in awards
A Fair Work Commission (FWC) full bench has tossed out the Master Builders Association (MBA)'s jurisdictional objections to a proposed modern award clause for the timber and paper industry (TI) that would penalise employers who don't pay wages on time. The MBA argued a High Court decision prevented the FWC from making such penalty clauses. However,...
↧
Diary
Industrial Relations Society of Victoria 2015 convention : March 20. More info here . Australian Workplace Relations Study conference, Fair Work Commission : June 25-26, at University of Melbourne. More info here .
↧
↧
Court approves desal industrial spying case settlement
WFD: The Federal Court has approved a settlement in a long-running class action brought against Thiess Degremont (TD) over alleged industrial spying at the Wonthaggi desalination site. The settlement does not include monetary compensation but will ensure the private industrial security firm TD allegedly engaged must destroy information gathered abo...
↧
Editorial Team
Editor: David Marin-Guzman, (02) 8587 7682, david.marin-guzman@thomsonreuters.com . Chief Journalist: Paul Karp. Journalist: Steve Andrew. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Product Code: 314021719535. Twitter: @WorkforceTR
↧
NSW Labor promises to give flexible work provisions teeth
The NSW Labor opposition has promised to significantly build on the ‘right to request' flexible work in the Fair Work Act by creating a “positive legal duty on employers” to grant flexible arrangements for workers who are pregnant or have carer or family responsibilities. The policy is part of a suite of proposed changes to the NS...
↧
No evidence supporting major WR reform, academics tell PC
A group of 15 leading workplace relations (WR) academics have united to argue there is insufficient evidence for the Productivity Commission (PC) to justify radical changes to labour laws and any change should be within the existing system. The academics' submission to the PC's WR inquiry also called on the cmn to emphasise productivity improvement...
↧
↧
Empoyer mitigation can be relevant to strike suspension considerations: FWC
The Fair Work Commission has held it can consider employer efforts to mitigate the effect of industrial action when deciding whether to suspend or terminate strikes for threatening health or safety. The ruling came in Senior Deputy President Anne Harrison's reasons for her February 27 decision to suspend the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) and Austra...
↧
End ‘constant' state of award reviews: AiG to PC
The Australian Industry Group (AiG) has called for a ban on pattern agreements, a compensation cap on general protections claims, and an end to modern award reviews, according to its submission to the Productivity Commission. The employer group also argued the workplace framework should no longer favour enterprise agreements (EAs) over other types ...
↧
Editorial Team
Editor: David Marin-Guzman, (02) 8587 7682, david.marin-guzman@thomsonreuters.com . Chief Journalist: Paul Karp. Managing Editor: Peter Schwab. Twitter: @WorkforceTR
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
