Pay and conditions page 33 of 39

FWC's interest-based dispute resolution approach reaches new stage; Shorten Government would intervene in penalties case; Visa cases now the lion's share of FWO prosecutions; Budget Estimates hearings brought forward; Labor bid to disallow regulation postponed to Wednesday; and Slaters wins new finance deal.

Law firm Maurice Blackburn is calling for tougher laws to force franchises to take responsibility for their franchisees' employment practices, as it pursues three underpayment claims totalling $1 million via the Fels 7-Eleven Wage Fairness Panel, which has now secured payouts of $11 million.

Two companies and their director that underpaid two Indian citizens and engaged in sham contracting and adverse action have been ordered to pay $200,000 in penalties and compensation.

The Federal Circuit Court has ordered a Mahjong club to pay more than $415,000 in compensation for breaching state and federal IR laws and engaging in adverse action when it moved a full-time tea attendant to a part-time role because of his workers' compensation claim.

The union that represents cleaners, disability care workers and security guards is asking the FWC to "convene a special process" in the second half of the year to determine whether it can set a "medium-term target" for the minimum wage, to arrest what it says is a long-term downward trajectory.

The ACTU is calling for a $30-a-week increase in the national minimum wage, lifting it to $686.90 a week or $18.07 an hour.

The FWO has for the first time secured orders for deduction of unpaid penalties from the pay of a former restaurant owner who underpaid his employees.

Road freight industry association NatRoad will tomorrow ask Employment Minister Michaelia Cash to intervene in an application to delay the start in April of a Road Safety Remuneration Order which it says could create a two-tiered payment system that discriminates against owner drivers.

The Federal Circuit Court has warned compliance order recipients that they should have "no misapprehension about their obligations to comply" after fining an employer that underpaid workers $9,000 on top of the original penalty. Meanwhile, the regulator is pursuing an accountancy firm that was allegedly involved in an employer's underpayments

The FWC has granted the AMIEU access to the records of non-members after it raised suspicions an employer was underpaying workers by failing to honour an incentive payment scheme.