More than 50 construction workers are facing penalties after the Federal Court found they took unlawful strike action when they attended a CFMEU rally at a Perth children's hospital construction site in 2013, but the union says the case is a complete "farce".
The FWO has used accessorial liability provisions to secure substantial penalties across the chain of command of a frozen yoghurt franchise responsible for underpaying four overseas workers.
The CFMEU construction and general division's Victorian branch spent $13.1 million on legal costs in the 12 months to the end of last year, up more than five-fold from $2.3 million in 2014.
The Federal Court has today fined a Melbourne painting & decorating firm and its director almost $20,000 for texting workers and telling them they must be members of the CFMEU before starting on-site work.
A director who appears to be operating a "phoenix" labour hire company and his former HR manager have been penalised $25,000 for their knowing involvement in unlawfully deducting $130,000 from the wages of 102 Crown Casino and Federation Square cleaners and providing false records to the FWO.
In a decision that canvasses how much assistance the FWC should provide to unrepresented parties, a full Federal Court has found an employer was not denied procedural fairness when the FWC dismissed an appeal notice that was more "diatribe" than pleading and didn't tell the employer to fix it.
An employee required to split her shifts between two Victorian medical clinics more than 20kms apart was entitled to claim car allowance for her travel, a full Federal Court has found.
The Queensland Supreme Court has ruled that Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd can recover up to $300,000 paid to an escort by a senior manager who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $20 million.
The Turnbull Government will introduce legislation early next year to give the Fair Work Ombudsman new examination powers and expressly prohibit employers from providing false and misleading information.
