The Federal Circuit Court has imposed $313,500 in penalties on a company in the Roy Morgan Group for sham contracting, ruling the contraventions were deliberate and directed by senior management.
In what four judges agree is an "extraordinary case" involving a "spectacularly bad witness" and a "serial fraudster", a Swan Hill shop assistant will keep almost half a million dollars in back pay and interest after a full Federal Court confirmed that she had not agreed to work for nothing.
BHP Coal was entitled to direct a boilermaker to attend an appointment with a company-nominated physician to determine whether he was fit to return to work, and to then terminate his employment when he refused to go, a Fair Work Commission full bench has ruled.
An injured Qantas baggage handler who sought a review under state workers compensation law of a rehabilitation plan that would have transferred him to a new employer was not prevented by the Fair Work Act's "multiple actions" provisions from pursuing a federal unfair dismissal claim, a full bench of the FWC has ruled.
A court has found that a law firm acted quickly to investigate claims of harassment by one of its solicitors and was entitled to treat emails from her stating that the employment relationship had broken down as a resignation.
An accounting firm dismissed a client manager because of serious misconduct rather than the "several and various exercises of his workplace rights" in the lead-up to his dismissal, the Federal Circuit Court has found.
A Toll subsidiary was justified in dismissing a Gorgon fuel terminal officer for falsifying a safety document, despite the fact that he was instructed to do so by a company OHS advisor, the Fair Work Commission has found.
The Federal Court has ordered an Xstrata subsidiary to provide the CFMEU's mining division with documents that will enable it to decide whether to include the mining company in an adverse action claim by a delegate who was sidelined after raising safety concerns.
Giving teenage employees free and discounted pizzas and soft drink instead of wages – a practice belonging "in the dark ages rather than twenty first century Australia" – has cost a pizza franchise operator $335,000 in fines.
The Master Builders Association has called on Canberra to act to give its proposed building watchdog the power to deal with secondary boycotts, which unions are using as a "weapon that has the capacity to send Master Builders' members to the wall or inflict sufficient damage to warrant complicity".
