The Greens will push to enshrine presumptions in the Fair Work Act that all workers are entitled to the same pay and conditions as employees and all work will be continuing unless there are sound operational business reasons against it, party leader Adam Bandt says.
The Fair Work Ombudsman says its record $532 million recovery of unpaid wages and entitlements in the last financial year was dominated by large corporates whose woes in part were caused by "complacency" or "high-risk workplace relations strategies".
A former economics professor's troubled relationship with workplace laws has continued, after a court accepted that he "actively" managed an underpaying grocery store previously fined for similar breaches.
The UWU has closed Hospo Voice, Australia's first "digital-only" union, while maintaining it has provided valuable lessons and tools as organised labour seeks to counter its weakness in attracting and retaining young workers.
IR Minister Tony Burke has outlined some of the entitlements he would like the FWC to include in the minimum conditions it prescribes for gig workers, while emphasising that it will be up to the tribunal to decide what's in and what's out, but a leading IR academic who developed a state labor government's blueprint for labour hire regulation says the new Government's approach will provide "a limited solution".
The TWU has signed an agreement with Uber that commits the delivery and rideshare giant to supporting the Federal Government legislating for an independent body responsible for creating industry-wide standards.
In what a lawyer believes will result in one of the biggest wage theft penalty orders to date, the Federal Court has found an employer significantly underpaid two cooks, made "cashback" demands to recoup payroll tax and visa costs and used threats to ensure compliance.
A finding that the FWC cannot keep dealing with disputes brought under old agreements once a new deal comes into effect has produced "arbitrary, anomalous and nonsensical outcomes" and is wrong, a full bench has held, calling for an amendment to the Fair Work Act to reflect the new precedent.
The poor prospects of consumers mobilising behind food delivery workers to secure minimum hourly rates and conditions means it has to be addressed by the legal framework, an academic has told an IR conference, while Ai Group chief executive Innes Willox says the Federal Government needs to drive regulation of the gig economy.
Australia's largest bus operator has been fined $181,000 after a judge considered an internal email to its chief executive warning of the "very real possibility of being accused of 'wage theft'" if it did not pay more than 750 drivers an overdue wage increase.
