An employer could face a ninefold increase in fines ordered by the Federal Circuit Court after the FWO successfully appealed the judgment on the basis that it wrongly grouped contraventions as a single course of action.
The future of a joint union equal pay claim for childcare workers is hanging in the balance after an FWC full bench was yesterday left searching for "real world" scenarios establishing metalworkers as a suitable comparator.
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in underpayments after a full Federal Court today held that an old State award that continued to dictate their pay was superseded three years ago.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 concept of the "farm gate" is virtual rather than physical in the horticultural sector, an FWC full bench has found in a coverage decision it backdated by eight years to ensure employers are not exposed to backpay claims.
The union movement's crucial bid to overturn the cuts to penalty rates in the retail and hospitality sectors kicks off tomorrow before a rare five-judge full Federal Court.
A Federal Court class action against Chubb Insurance Australia Limited for alleged failing to pay minimum rates, overtime and penalties has been discontinued after the lawyers for the employees failed to secure litigation funding.
A court has found a husband and wife who performed largely home-based clerical work exclusively for one business before their services were further outsourced were employees rather than contractors because the company had an "undoubted authority to control" the relationship.
A cleaner who invoiced as both a sole trader and a company but claims he was an employee is pursuing Woolworths and three contracting businesses for more than $300,000 in underpaid wages and unpaid overtime, annual leave and superannuation he says he should have been paid between 2004 and 2015.
While stopping short of categorising a long-time Esso employee who worked overseas as an on-hire worker, an FWC full bench has found that his failure to secure a "substantive" role with the company on return to Australia meant he could not rely on an industry award to protect him from unfair dismissal.
A five-member FWC full bench has ruled today that modern awards should enable casual employees to elect to convert to full-time or part-time employment, subject to certain rules and restrictions.