In one of the last wages and entitlements cases pursued by the FWBC, a building subcontractor that used a labour-hire company to distance itself from it employment obligations has been fined $145,000 and ordered to backpay $150,000 to more than a dozen workers.
A company that dismissed a rigger for working unsafely at height and then allegedly ignoring a supervisor’s instruction to work differently has been ordered to pay him $9000 compensation, after failing to prove he received sufficiently clear directions.
A senior Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled that when assessing compensation in an unfair dismissal case, the tribunal needs "cogent evidence" to find that an employee would have been summarily sacked within a short period if the original termination of employment had not occurred.
A court has ordered former directors of related liquidated companies to compensate a construction worker for underpayments owing under a modern award and its state predecessor, finding that the Fair Work Act's remedy provisions extend beyond employers.
A major employer-clientele law firm is predicting that unions will become more aggressive in their pursuit of wage and job security claims this year, and that employers will respond in kind by seeking to unilaterally end bargaining negotiations and turning to regulators like the ACCC.
A software engineer breached his employment contract, his equitable duty of confidence, the Copyright Act and the Corporations Act when he downloaded more than 380,000 of his employer's files onto a hard drive, just before he resigned, a court has found.
Kathy Jackson's lawyer has succeeded in staving off the HSU's bid for a $700,000 summary judgment against her for now, with the Federal Court ordering him to provide more medical evidence of her condition.
A hotel management company that took unlawful adverse action when it stopped giving shifts to a casual bartender who complained of being underpaid has been ordered to pay $11,000 compensation, including a sum for distress, hurt, and humiliation.
The HSU has told the Federal Court that bank records it has obtained while pursuing its $700,000 civil claims against national secretary Kathy Jackson reveal that she has incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars of additional unauthorised spending, but the union might allow "other authorities" to pursue the sums on its behalf.
A hotel chef breached his contractual duty of fidelity and fiduciary duties by sourcing chicken schnitzels through his wife's business and selling them to his employer for $1 more than their original purchase price, a court has found.
