Multinational cosmetics company Lush has backpaid workers almost $4.5 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO after the lack of an HR department and training, along with a moribund manual payroll system, led to widespread underpayments.
A full Federal Court has confirmed that 150 workers were entitled to be paid for the 20-minute bus ride to a major energy project's security gate at the end of each shift, after one of the judges rejected a request to recuse himself because he had acted for the employer during negotiations for the deal at the heart of the dispute.
A court has revived a former national swim coach's underpayment claims, granting him leave to challenge a finding that an award did not cover his role.
An FWC full bench has emphasised that the pattern of a casual's hours need not be consistent or predictable for their work to be regular and systematic, clearing the way for a full-time worker first engaged as a casual to file an unfair dismissal claim.
The Federal Court has doused the construction watchdog's pursuit of one of the CFMMEU's national leaders for allegedly organising an illegal strike, finding construction workers were entitled to pass more than two showery days in a "smoko shed" under the award's inclement weather provisions.
BHP has again failed to win approval for two hotly-contested in-house labour hire deals after a FWC full bench majority rejected further undertakings to address four "genuine agreement" concerns.
A factory worker who maintains his employer is committing "daylight robbery" by taking his colleagues' confidential biometric data has failed in his second attempt at reinstatement.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has made scant use of new powers it won three years ago to conduct compulsory interviews and to prosecute franchisors to help to protect vulnerable workers.
In a significant judgment closely examining the limits of "industrial activity", a full Federal Court led by Chief Justice James Allsop has overturned penalties imposed on two CFMMEU officials for leading a walk-out from a building site that had no separate toilet for a female worker.