The Albanese Government will soon introduce further IR legislation to include superannuation payments in the National Employment Standards (NES), clarify coverage of temporary migrant workers and ensure stronger access to unpaid parental leave.
In what it claims is its first litigation seeking to have a holding company found responsible for its subsidiaries' breaches, the FWO has initiated court action against ASX-listed Super Retail Group for self-reported underpayments of more than $1 million that led to an internal audit and backpayments exceeding $50 million that the watchdog says remain short of the mark.
The Victorian Supreme Court has fined a former labour hire company and its director almost half a million dollars for failing to disclose that he had criminal convictions for offences including drug trafficking and theft.
A court has fined the director of a Japanese restaurant almost $25,000 after finding that he "reverse engineered" pay records provided to the FWO and asked a shortchanged employee not to "sell me out".
A court has fined a major meat processing company $30,000 for unlawfully hindering a union official's entry by requiring him to surrender his phone, after finding its no-phones "safety" policy did not apply to other types of visitors.
A large employer has been fined almost $100,000 after a court rejected its "bare apology" for requiring a newly-arrived migrant to work 12 extra hours a week for more than three years.
A Federal Court judge has while fining a franchisor almost $500,000 for deliberately underpaying Taiwanese interns speculated that a recent High Court ruling will impel more parties to agree on penalties rather than go to trial, an "unfortunate by-product" being fewer judgments offering "yardsticks" for future cases.
A Federal Court majority has slashed by more than 65% penalties imposed on a government-owned organisation for breaching agreement obligations, finding them "manifestly excessive".
The NSW Perrottet Coalition Government is blaming a union-negotiated staffing agreement for hampering its ability to offer permanency to temporary teachers, as both it and NSW Labor promise to convert 10,000 to permanent roles.
In a detailed examination of a major government department's early response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Court has rejected union claims that a hastily-conceived working from home policy breached existing arrangements and consultation requirements.
