A former Melbourne fruit market owner and his company have been hit with record penalties of more than $660,000 after "arrogantly" ignoring FWO warnings about underpaying a vulnerable Afghan refugee.
The Federal Court has overturned an $800,000 costs order against the Fair Work Ombudsman, after finding that a Federal Circuit Court judge was wrong to find the watchdog's unreasonable acts or omissions partially responsible for two company directors incurring unreasonable legal expenses.
The FWC has slammed an employer for "behaviour of the shabbiest type" when it "de-rostered" an employee and cancelled his 457 visa sponsorship application because he asked to be paid his minimum lawful entitlements.
An FWC full bench has refused to accept Coles Supermarkets night-fill employee Penny Vickers' argument that its law firm's conflict of interest should rule it out from helping to repel her bid to terminate its 2011 agreement.
Unions are seeking the reinstatement of powers to inspect non-members' time and wages records, after their analysis of 200 job advertisements aimed at Chinese, Korean and Spanish-speakers showed that almost four out of every five pay less than the award.
The Federal Court has expedited the union application to quash the Fair Work Commission's cuts to penalty rates, but a three-day hearing will nevertheless start no earlier than September 18.
The National Farmers' Federation will argue the FWO has misconstrued the horticulture award's piecework provisions in a Federal Court case it believes has the potential to remove much of the incentive to work across the entire sector.
The owners of a Coffee Club café franchise have been fined more than $180,000 for taking advantage of a desperate 457 skilled visa worker who they first refused to pay and then forced to hand back $18,000 under threat of ending his sponsorship.
