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.
A 61-year-old former economics professor has been fined $31,000 for underpaying two visa holders employed at a Korean grocery, a court finding he deliberately arranged for them to receive as little as $10 an hour.
A major convenience chain operator slugged with almost $65,000 in penalties for the "brazen", "deliberate exploitation" of a console operator has hit back at a $70 million class action, denying claims and citing a lead applicant's alleged behavioural issues.
An accountancy firm that created and gave the FWO false records covering up a massage parlour's underpayments must pay more per breach than the family-run employer, which has been fined about 10% of the penalties sought by the workplace watchdog.
The ACCC will argue a Federal Court judge mistakenly found Employsure advertising would not mislead businesses into thinking it is a government agency, in an appeal lodged this week.
The former chair of an ASX-listed agribusiness who claims he was constructively dismissed via a $200,000 pay cut and demotion after raising concerns about its management is suing it for adverse action and breaching whistleblower laws.
A five-member full Federal Court has today warned judges against allowing "moral judgements" to intrude when they are imposing penalties, in overturning heavy fines for a CFMMEU "no ticket, no start" transgression after a judicial officer took the wrong approach to its "recidivist" history of contraventions.
The Uber group of companies is contending that a class action by almost 8000 taxi drivers, operators and licensees relies excessively on "hypothetical" allegations about matters that are claimed to be "typical".
In a decision upholding a finding that Sydney Water and a consultancy discriminated against a worker by displaying her photo on a poster titled "Feel great - lubricate!", a tribunal has confirmed even inadvertent double entendres can constitute s-xual harassment.