Two landmark class actions allege that a BHP Billiton subsidiary induced two labour hire companies to unlawfully engage hundreds of coal mineworkers as casuals and pay them less than the industry award.
The FWC has today rejected union arguments that a pallet service centre's agreement setting wages for "any person engaged to perform work" extends to labour hire workers.
In a significant rebuff to employer attempts to accelerate agreement approval processes, a five-member FWC full bench as part of its "loaded rates" ruling has affirmed the requirement to apply the BOOT to each and every covered employee.
The Turnbull Government has today introduced legislation to require large businesses to report on their actions to address modern slavery risks in their supply chains.
The Federal Circuit Court has imposed a fine if almost $100,000 on a former Caltex franchisee who admitted falsifying wage records for migrant workers, prompting warnings that higher penalties are now possible.
An FWC full bench has made a significant decision on what constitutes new activity when making greenfields agreements, after the CFMMEU described the deal as a "a cynical, industrially incorrigible and flawed attempt to bypass bargaining with its employees and their union of choice".
A full Federal Court has today ushered in a new age in which union officials are held personally liable for breaching IR laws, ordering a CFMMEU organiser to pay almost $20,000 from his own pocket for his role in disrupting work at a construction site in 2013.
The Federal Court has fined a former Flight Attendants' Association international division secretary $2000 for failing to submit six years of the union's budgets and overpaying himself $16,000 in 2011, taking into account his cooperation and "genuine belief" he was entitled to the sum.
A Queensland parliamentary inquiry into wage theft has kicked off with the state's Office of IR criticising the Fair Work Ombudsman's handling of underpayment complaints.
Toll has been given the green light to expand the use of in-cabin cameras and infrared fatigue monitoring systems for its long distance and liquid tanker drivers, the FWC finding them neither unsafe nor unreasonable.
