The FWO has lost its appeal against a finding that four allegedly underpaid delivery drivers were independent contractors rather than employees, the judge observing that the case was "much harder" to decide than the recent High Court ruling that guided him.
In a case applying the High Court's new guidelines on contractors, a judge has rejected a worker's bid for leave, super and redundancy payments after finding he was not an employee despite averaging 38 hours a week over eight years for a solitary employer.
The implications of today's High Court decisions affirming the primacy of contractual terms in determining employment relationships are "extremely concerning, perhaps even frightening" for those concerned about the integrity of the IR system, an academic says.
The "deeper legacy" of the High Court's recent landmark Rossato judgment lies not so much in its pronouncements on the concept of casual employment, but in establishing a stricter approach to interpreting employment contracts that emphasises their written terms, leading employment barrister David Chin will tell the Australian Labour Law Association national conference tomorrow.
Uber is again facing a challenge to claims it has no employment relationship with drivers, a rideshare workers' group going after the company for alleged record keeping and payslip breaches in a case seeking penalties to boost its advocacy war chest.
The FWC will consider Menulog's application to create an On Demand Delivery Industry Award, after a full bench expressed tentative views that the miscellaneous award does not provide a "fair and relevant" safety net and that the fast food award does not cover the sector.
The multinational parent of Thorn Lighting has told the High Court that a full Federal Court's finding that two contracted truck drivers were employees despite nominally running their own businesses was "internally incoherent".
The High Court is likely to hear the Personnel Contracting/ZG Operations and Ridd cases in the second half of the year, after setting timetables for submissions to be completed by early June.
Unions say Uber's failure to convince the UK's Supreme Court that its drivers are independent contractors or that their working time only includes periods carrying passengers is set to be "very persuasive" in the Australian context.
The High Court has today granted a CFMMEU bid for special leave to appeal a full Federal Court ruling that a building worker engaged by labour hire company Personnel Contracting was an independent contractor.
