Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has rejected a Labor proposal to make a joint submission to the Fair Work Commission on the importance of maintaining penalty rates.
A contractor "knowingly involved" in underpaying vulnerable supermarket trolley collectors and a subcontractor who "deliberately" produced false payment records and underpaid employees have been fined more than $90,000 by the Federal Court.
The Fair Work Commission's much-anticipated ruling on weekend penalty rates is likely to be brought down in September, according to Australia's biggest employer group.
The FWC is inviting comment on consultation schedules for the plain English redrafting of specific clauses in the pharmacy industry award, standard and common clauses in all awards, and the redrafting of the clerks, hospitality, restaurant and retail awards.
The FWO has secured its largest back-payment, after making an enforceable undertaking with a Victorian-based mining services company that requires it to reimburse $2 million to 205 underpaid workers and provide IR training to all managers with HR and payroll responsibilities.
Coles has told the Fair Work Commission it will not make the changes required for its 2014-17 supermarkets enterprise agreement to pass the better off overall test.
An FWO inquiry into housekeeping services reveals that exploitation of vulnerable, overseas workers is rife within the industry, as one of Australia's largest hotel and resort operators agrees to enter into enforceable undertakings with the watchdog in a bid to avoid proceedings over an independent contracting model it established that robbed workers of their correct wages and conditions.
Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is ending the Fels Panel's oversight of its process for rectifying systematic underpayments to franchisee employees and moving the task to what it says is an independent internal unit.
