Merivale has hit back at a class action's claims it underpaid thousands of salaried employees and others engaged under a pre-Fair Work "zombie" deal and is maintaining it can use overpayments to offset additional entitlements.
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.
Coles says a class action seeking to recoup more than $150 million allegedly owed to salaried managers is without merit, given it is already on track to finalise its review and start re-paying affected employees.
The Fair Work Ombudsman concedes it has been drawn into unfamiliar territory by a spate of multi-million dollar underpayments by large corporations, telling a parliamentary inquiry that policing systemic payroll non-compliance at companies like Woolworths, Qantas and Wesfarmers "does not sit easily" with its historic role.
A court has tossed out the workplace watchdog's bid to force a franchisor to hand over documents relevant to an investigation after ruling that it issued an invalid notice to produce.
The law firm behind a multi-million-dollar class action against labour hire provider One Key Resources and One Key Holdings says it will test the ability of vulnerable workers legislation to hold parent companies to account.
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.
A court has ordered that the Fair Work Ombudsman refund company directors any restitution made to former employees if the regulator is unable to track them down within 28 days.
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.
