Underpaying employers could face fines of more than $4 million or three times the sum involved, while individuals such as directors and HR managers could face imprisonment and penalties up to $825,000 per breach under further wage theft reforms being considered by the Albanese Government.
The FWC has speculated that an energy company in the midst of a $1.5 billion buying spree "presumably has a contingency plan in place" after rejecting its bid to have thousands of new employees covered by a 12-year-old deal that would leave some on below-award wages.
The Albanese Government has outlined for the first time the details of how it might implement its "same job, same pay" proposal that it framed to ensure labour hire arrangements are not used to undercut employees' pay and conditions.
The ACTU says it would be "offensive" not to heed new Fair Work Act gender equality and secure work objectives that significantly boost the case for a bigger lift to the minimum wage and award rates given the over-representation of award-reliant women in low-paid, insecure jobs.
FIFO workers employed on a remote LNG project a decade ago stand to split more than $850,000 after pursuing payment for the time it took to be bussed from their crib hut to a security gate at the end of each shift.
The Catholic Council for Employment Relations is calling for a 7.2% boost to the minimum wage and the rates of many award-reliant workers to help close the poverty gap by 2030, arguing the FWC wrongly rejected its stance last year on what constitutes a safety net.
The Albanese Government will urge the FWC's minimum wage panel to award an inflation-matching increase to the lowest-paid workers, but will stop short of pushing for an across-the-board increase for workers on higher award classifications.
Stevedoring giant Qube has failed to overturn a ruling that it should have slashed the minimum number of hours salaried dockworkers needed to work in a year after withholding their pay over 11 weeks of protected industrial action.
A union has won a rare order allowing it to inspect the employee records of a business part-owned by a listed company in search of proof of underpayments.