A federal court judge has in fining an underpaying juice shop operator almost $35,000 flatly rejected "cultur[al] differences" as a mitigating factor, lamenting instead the frequency with which ethnically diverse employers exploit their own communities.
The NTEU says it is preparing a "wave of class actions" and will "open the rule book" in pursuing other avenues to recover millions of dollars in underpayments on behalf of highly casualised university employees.
The FWO's pursuit of penalties over a crew's "sit-in" on a decommissioned trading vessel has been potentially scuppered by a Federal Court finding that they were not covered by an agreement at the time.
The ABCC has enjoyed another mixed result in its campaign to bring the CFMMEU to heel, a Federal Court judge agreeing to impose personal payment orders against three officials involved in picketing a building site but rejecting argument that the union's past record should necessarily attract maximum penalties.
Woolies class action back before court in September; FWC rebuffs CFMMEU bid to stop BHP labour hire deployment; and Reinstatement for worker accused of "racially divisive" statements.
In levelling a $22,440 penalty against the former owner-operator of a labour-hire company that underpaid 80 workers on a Queensland mushroom farm more than $78,000, a court has noted the FWO did not seek compensation.
An account manager who is suing Virgin Australia for alleged pregnancy discrimination and adverse action says it imposed an excessive workload when she returned from her first period of parental leave and made her redundant during her second.
The CFMMEU and one of its officials organised unlawful industrial action by 16 building workers to coerce a construction subcontractor to make an agreement for a stadium construction project, the Federal Court has ruled
A Full Federal Court has in rejecting a big employer's appeal of two rulings affirmed that a worker's reasonable expectation of ongoing employment helps determine their entitlement to redundancy payments.