Major court and tribunal decisions in Australia in 2015

A number of significant Federal Court and Fair Work Commission decisions decided in 2015 reveal the approach that each institution (the court on one hand and an administrative tribunal on the other) has taken to the interpretation and application of important workplace law principles and rules. These include the abiding question of ‘who is an employee’ and therefore covered by workplace laws; how the General Protections in the Fair Work Act should operate; what constitutes ‘fair’ treatment for the purposes of the Commission’s unfair dismissal and workplace bullying jurisdictions; and how flexibly (or technically) the rules for enterprise bargaining should be applied.