The Federal Court has awarded a ship's officer $100 in nominal damages for her employer's breach of her employment contract, finding it could not have foreseen that its flawed investigation of allegations she was bullied by her captain would lead her to stop working in the maritime industry altogether.
A court has found that a driver engaged as a casual under a labour hire arrangement is an employee who is entitled to annual leave payments under the Fair Work Act.
The Federal Court has refused to suspend penalties against 50 workers who walked out to protest a colleague's sacking, fining each individual up to $1,500 for their unlawful industrial action at ExxonMobil's Longford gas conditioning plant last year.
A court has fined a company and its director $124,000 over a sham contracting arrangement in which they underpaid a 417 visa-holder almost $8000 for four months work after misclassifying him as an independent contractor.
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.
