The ETU has declared a major payday for more than 4000 Queensland apprentices it claims are owed $70 million in underpayments after a full Federal Court today held that an old State award that continued to dictate their pay was superseded three years ago.
The husband and wife team behind a cleaning business have been hit with a record $510,840 penalty for underpaying three Taiwanese working holiday visa holders $11,500, a Federal Circuit Court judge dismissing concerns about their ability to pay despite an outstanding bill of $343,000 from a previous prosecution for identical contraventions.
United Voice is today staging a protest outside a Melbourne restaurant at the centre of a bartender's underpayments claim and says its investigation of the state's hospitality sector exposes the city as the "wage theft capital of Australia".
In a ruling that underlines the Fair Work Ombudsman's pursuit of accessorial liability against advisors, a court has for the first time imposed a fine on an accountancy firm involved in an employer's underpayments.
The High Court has refused to grant special leave to appeal a full Federal Court finding that a CFMEU official needed a federal entry permit to assist a health and safety representative when he was invited onto a construction site under Victorian OHS laws.
The Workplace Gender Equality Agency says "remarkable" growth in employers analysing their data for gender pay gaps means more than half now have formal strategies to address imbalances, but its annual scorecard reveals the overall $26,527 gender pay gap has decreased only marginally.
The FWO has initiated its first contempt of court application against a Cairns businessman for allegedly breaching a freezing order by transferring $41,035 out of two company accounts to a family trust when still owing $85,000 to the Commonwealth and former employees.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has quietly established a special unit that has multiple investigations afoot in the commercial construction industry.
The High Court will next Friday hear special leave applications from WorkSafe Victoria and a CFMEU official who are challenging a full Federal Court finding that he needed a federal entry permit to assist a health and safety representative when invited onto a construction site.
