In the FWO's first underpayment prosecution relying on race discrimination prohibitions in the Fair Work Act, a court has found a Tasmanian hotel and its manager deliberately short-changed a head chef and kitchen hand and expected them to work long hours, six days a week because of their Malaysian nationality and Chinese race.
The Federal Court has today ordered former ABC Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss to pay the CFMEU an $8,500 fine for his "wrongdoing" when he breached the law "he was required to police", resulting in the dissemination of "false information" on right of entry.
The High Court has this morning refused a CFMEU bid for special leave to challenge a full Federal Court majority ruling that increased penalties twelve-fold after after accepting that it could not treat a "lawful request" or a party's motivation for taking coercive industrial action as a mitigating factor when determining fines.
Twenty-year jail terms for industrial manslaughter and the newly-created role of WHS Prosecutor are among legislative changes contained in a bill introduced to Queensland Parliament yesterday.
A full Federal Court has fined the CFMEU $300,000 and the CEPU $130,000 over a 2011 industrial campaign; penalties that are almost three times higher than originally sought by the construction watchdog.
United Voice has launched Federal Court action against security giant Wilson, accusing it of unlawfully allocating overtime payments to Sundays in a bid to avoid paying correct penalty rates to security guards.
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 ABCC is likely to routinely pursue unions for "knowing involvement" when entry breaches are established against their officials, after a court ruling this week.
The prosecution has reworked its case against former HSU leader Kathy Jackson, who now faces 164 charges that mostly relate to alleged theft and fraud from her time as a union official.
