The Federal Court has relied on a 25-year "common understanding" in the transport industry in preference to the literal wording of an award in rejecting a TWU claim for Linfox day workers to be paid crib time.
In what four judges agree is an "extraordinary case" involving a "spectacularly bad witness" and a "serial fraudster", a Swan Hill shop assistant will keep almost half a million dollars in back pay and interest after a full Federal Court confirmed that she had not agreed to work for nothing.
In another chapter of a long-running case involving a botched attempt to lodge AWAs, a former company director will have the penalty for her role in short-changing 33 call centre workers reduced after the Federal Court cut in half the period in which she was liable as an accessory to her company's breaches.
In a big win for supermarket giant Coles, the Federal Circuit Court has ruled that its online delivery drivers are covered by the major retail award, throwing out the TWU's long-running claim that they are employed in the transport industry.
Jetstar unlawfully deducted training costs from the wages of cadet pilots, despite warnings against doing so from its external IR consultant and its head of flying operations, the Federal Court has revealed in a penalty judgment today.
The Federal Court has stayed a $300,000 Federal Magistrates Court penalties and backpay order against a call centre, while imposing a conditional security payment, acknowledging the employer's chances of a successful appeal are "not strong".
The Victorian Supreme Court has ruled that a senior employee is not required to re-pay a 12-week redundancy payout that her former employer wanted back after discovering it had no legal obligation to make it.
The Federal Court has fined a company and its managing director $30,000 for signing seven employees up to individual flexibility agreements with unlawful terms and threatening with dismissal or loss of shifts employees who resisted. Meanwhile, the ACTU has predicted that a FWA research study will reveal widespread abuse of the individual deals.