The SDA has pledged to stake out and help slay the "new zombie agreements" following a FWC decision to terminate Billabong's 2012 national deal at the conclusion of its peak trading period, while the union is also leaping into the crowded KFC class action space.
Shine Lawyers says the exclusion of thousands of SDA members from its McDonald's class action will "inform future interplay" between union and non-union representative proceedings, while a full court ruling has set a "powerful precedent" for using collective action to protect workers' rights.
Shine and RAFFWU are preparing a class action against KFC to win compensation for potentially tens of thousands of workers allegedly denied proper rest breaks, weeks after the Federal Court slammed the SDA over its approach to McDonald's rest breaks litigation and decided its case should run concurrently with an earlier Shine/RAFFWU proceeding.
A judge who rejected a SDA bid to prioritise its breaks case against McDonald's by staying an earlier RAFFWU-backed class action has contrasted the "lacklustre and misdirected approach" of the country's second-largest union with that of the unregistered, seven-year-old union and its lawyers.
The FSU says Commonwealth Bank retail workers forced to work through their 10-minute tea breaks for the past six years will be compensated, after it won a $3 million settlement of its $45 million Federal Court claim.
Australian workplace laws have a "legislative preference" for registered unions to act as a "specific vehicle" for workers seeking to enforce their rights under industrial instruments, the Federal Court has heard.
A 63-year-old worker's summary "time theft" sacking has been upheld after the FWC ruled that his multinational employer's HR team lacked the firepower to argue its case against a union's experienced industrial advocate.
The FWC has rejected a glass manufacturer's claims that it accidentally halved rest breaks in a proposed deal, dismissing the employer's approval application because it failed to adequately explain it and other deficient clauses to the workers who voted for it.
McDonald's told workers they could exchange rest breaks for a soft drink or going to the toilet, according to allegations set out in a new SDA "mega" case against the fast food giant that seeks $250 million in compensation from it and more than 300 franchisees.
The FSU is suing the Commonwealth Bank in the Federal Court for allegedly denying retail banking employees 10-minute rest breaks, claiming it owes at least $45 million in backpay to about 3000 workers.