The Federal Circuit Court has imposed a fine if almost $100,000 on a former Caltex franchisee who admitted falsifying wage records for migrant workers, prompting warnings that higher penalties are now possible.
A full Federal Court has today ushered in a new age in which union officials are held personally liable for breaching IR laws, ordering a CFMMEU organiser to pay almost $20,000 from his own pocket for his role in disrupting work at a construction site in 2013.
The Federal Court has fined a former Flight Attendants' Association international division secretary $2000 for failing to submit six years of the union's budgets and overpaying himself $16,000 in 2011, taking into account his cooperation and "genuine belief" he was entitled to the sum.
A judge has today comprehensively rejected an FWO attempt to rewrite the way courts assess fines for unlawful strikes, ordering the CFMMEU's MUA division to pay $38,000 for a solitary contravention after the watchdog sought $3.6 million in penalties for more than 500 breaches.
The publisher of The Australian has pleaded guilty to contempt of court over an article it published about Victorian CFMMEU leader John Setka while he was facing blackmail charges.
Former NUW NSW branch secretary Derrick Belan has been sentenced to four years' jail on 60 charges that involved more than $650,000 of union funds, including personal spending on a tattoo, Botox treatments, holidays and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
In a significant ruling that might reduce penalties regulators can win for Fair Work Act breaches, the Federal Court has found that the legislation's double jeopardy provision prevents the imposition of separate fines for related contraventions arising from the same conduct.
The FWO is seeking to fine the CFMMEU's MUA division more than $3.5 million for unlawful industrial action against Hutchison Ports, using a novel argument that historic contraventions of the same Fair Work Act provision denies the union the benefit of the legislation's single course of conduct mechanism.
The Registered Organisations Commission has initiated a prosecution of the AWU's Victorian branch and its former secretary, Cesar Melhem, for allegedly failing to remove 2,000 unfinancial members from the books over a five-year period through to 2013.
The Federal Court has ordered a company and its director to pay substantial fines for failing to pass on more than $11,000 in parental leave payments to a cook and then concealing their actions after the FWO began asking questions.
