Multinational cosmetics company Lush has backpaid workers almost $4.5 million and entered into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO after the lack of an HR department and training, along with a moribund manual payroll system, led to widespread underpayments.
A 61-year-old former economics professor has been fined $31,000 for underpaying two visa holders employed at a Korean grocery, a court finding he deliberately arranged for them to receive as little as $10 an hour.
An accountancy firm that created and gave the FWO false records covering up a massage parlour's underpayments must pay more per breach than the family-run employer, which has been fined about 10% of the penalties sought by the workplace watchdog.
A five-member FWC full bench has today given any objectors until Monday to respond to its "provisional view" that it should extend COVID-19 paid pandemic leave provisions in three major health awards for five months.
The Federal Court has put the brakes on the $1.9 million settlement of a $65 million class action against marketing agency Appco, noting it would leave more than 1000 former fundraisers with "diddly squat" after the litigation funder takes half.
Forty-eight former Macquarie Bank wealth advisors have been awarded compensation totalling more than $1.3 million despite a judge describing as "rapacious" their claims about underpayment of various leave entitlements.
The Federal Circuit Court has expressed "hesitation and regret" in accepting that while a DJ was a casual rather than an independent contractor, his underpayments claim must fail as his work was not covered by an award.
The FWC has given any objectors a week to put their views on extending special coronavirus-driven flexibilities in 71 modern awards until the end of March, when the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ends.
An FWC full bench has quashed a decision to reduce a $12,000 retrenchment payout to zero, ruling that the Fair Work Act's "incapacity to pay" provisions don't apply when the entitlement arises from a source such as an award.