In a coronavirus-driven strategy shift, the Fair Work Ombudsman will temporarily consider the "impact on viability" when deciding whether to prosecute employers, but has stressed it will still require underpayments to be made good.
In the FWO's first "contrition payment" extracted from another federal public body, the ABC has agreed to pay $600,000 and enter into an enforceable undertaking after admitting it underpaid 1900 past and current employees more than $12 million.
The MBAV this year applied to revoke a 30-year-old exemption that enabled it to conduct its own elections, after an inquiry by the ROC into the conduct of the employer body's 2018 ballot.
The Federal Court has given the FWO permission to pursue a case that "raises matters of public importance with implications well beyond the parties" that involves a company, now in voluntary liquidation, that allegedly obstructed the watchdog's inspectors.
Three payroll officers who "reverse-engineered" false records during an FWO investigation have been fined a total of $121,000 as part of the largest penalty order won by the workplace watchdog.
The Registered Organisation Commission's challenge to the Federal Court's quashing of its investigation into the AWU's past donations is set to be heard next month, while the regulator has completed its investigation of an employer organisation and is awaiting advice on whether it will deregister before taking further action.
The Victorian Government has pushed ahead with legislation to create a criminal offence for deliberate underpayment, defying employer calls for it to be scrapped or delayed.
The ASU has hit out at the FWO for letting Qantas off with a $390,500 "slap on the wrist" contrition fine for underpaying 640 misclassified head office workers by about $7.1 million, but the airline says its self-reported error also led to about $22 million in overpayments.
In rejecting an individual's claim that an ABCC notice to attend an examination was invalid as it did not enable her to decide whether she needed to answer all of its questions, the Federal Court has also contradicted the agency's position on the level of detail it must provide.
The Victorian Government intends to "pierce the corporate veil" with its forthcoming legislation to introduce criminal penalties for the worst cases of underpayment and exploitation.
