The February 2017 decision of a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to cut penalty rates in certain modern award, as detailed in our blog post here, has been upheld following an appeal by unions in the Federal Court of Australia Full Court (FCAFC). Background In February this year, the FWC handed down a decision reducing penalty rates on Sundays and public holidays in several modern awards. The penalty rate reduction came about…
Employers across Australia will be facing increased scrutiny, investigation and liability arising from the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Bill 2017 (the Bill), which passed the Senate last night. These new laws will place significant pressure on franchisors and holding companies which to date may have turned a blind eye to the practices of their franchisees. The Bill amends the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FW Act) to: introduce higher penalties for serious…
The Fair Work Commission has upheld an employer’s decision to dismiss an employee who engaged in “significant and systematic micromanaging” of his employees. The employer dismissed the employee following a workplace investigation, on the basis that he had engaged in breaches of relevant workplace policies regarding bullying and harassment. Complaints Several employees working under the supervision of the employee made complaints. A number of complaints related to specific incidents, including that the employee had responded…
The Fair Work Commission has upheld an employee’s application for unfair dismissal following a positive blood alcohol test at work. The employee, a maintenance worker, underwent a pre-work blood alcohol test. His blood alcohol content first showed at 0.013%, and 0.006% some 30 minutes later. The employee was stood down for the day, and his employment was terminated summarily 4 days later for breach of the company’s zero-tolerance Drug and Alcohol Policy. Whilst the employee…