In this month’s Update we examine a recent case where an employee found to have committed an act of serious misconduct was still successful in his unfair dismissal application to the Fair Work Commission. Outline of Facts: The Applicant in this case was the manager of a well-known shoe store chain in a suburb of […]
A crane hire company has been ordered to pay $25,500 in penalties after it was found to have taken adverse action against a union delegate who raised complaints about his pay. The employee claimed that he and his colleagues, who were covered by the Company’s enterprise agreement, were entitled to penalty rates in addition to […]
An employer has failed in defending an unfair dismissal claim, with the consistency of its disciplinary action, for this employee as against others, called into question. In late 2015, a group of employees took industrial action against the employer in relation to enterprise agreement negotiations. The Applicant employee in this case left a voicemail message […]
This month we are looking at two of the more interesting issues to arise out of union ‘interventions’ in workplaces. Right of entry – does it extend to before and after work? In a recent case, the Fair Work Commission was asked to consider whether the right of entry laws extended to holding discussions during […]
A Mine Grader Operator has been successful in being reinstated to his job, but the Fair Work Commission denied him compensation for the period in which he was without a job, stating that the employee must accept “a substantial degree of responsibility for the financial consequences of his dismissal”. The employee was terminated following an […]
The Fair Work Ombudsman has been successful in obtaining an Order that will serve as a warning to Company Directors, where the company is underpaying staff. This was a security services company (and also with a history of dealings with the FWO), that admitted a number of contraventions relating to the underpayment of 8 employees […]
On 9 June 2016, the FWO confirmed the securing of an Enforceable Undertaking with a Victorian based mining employer. The Undertaking sets out that since August 2015, the mining services company has been the subject of 11 requests for assistance to the FWO “relating to allegations of underpayment of wages, penalty rates and shift allowances”. […]
The Federal Court of Australia has recently handed down awarding over $330,000 to an employee who was able to establish that her new employer had misrepresented her potential earnings during the recruitment process. The employee in this case was a veteran of the insurance building industry. Up until about April 2013, she was employed by […]
Another employer has failed to satisfy the Fair Work Commission on the issue of serious misconduct. In this case , the Applicant was an internationally renowned rifleman and IT Manager. In July 2015, a friend of the Applicant attended the carpark of the Applicant’s workplace with the intention of discussing a rifle part with him. Critically, […]
The Federal Circuit Court has awarded an employee $415,698 in damages, as well as imposing $50,000 worth of civil penalties on an employer following a finding that the employer changed the status of the employee from full-time to part-time as a result of the employee making a workers’ compensation claim. The Court accepted that for […]