A small coach company that voluntarily repaid two drivers almost $44,000 after admitting underpaying them has been penalised a total of $168,300, despite a judge finding the breaches were a result of "clumsiness and inadvertence" rather than deliberate.
Sham contractors face higher penalties and a harder time showing they have inadvertently misrepresented employment arrangements under legislative changes contemplated by a Treasury discussion paper.
A former GM Holden engineer is suing the company for adverse action, sham contracting and coercion, alleging it reduced her redundancy payout by more than $20,000 when she refused to sign a separation agreement without continuity of service covering her time as a contractor.
A landmark unfair dismissal case involving a former delivery rider for Foodora Australia Pty Ltd is set to continue tomorrow, despite the company last month going into voluntary administration.
The voluntary administrators of food delivery business Foodora Australia Pty Ltd say the process will give the company "essential breathing space", which includes a statutory stay on landmark legal proceedings testing whether its riders are employees or contractors.
Two big international direct marketing companies exercised control over workers who were engaged as independent contractors to sell products or solicit donations to major corporations and charities, according to documents lodged with the Federal Court.
A class action alleging sham contracting against a major marketing agency will proceed after a court dismissed arguments that it was impossible to rule on the employment status of more than 1000 claimants without examining their individual circumstances.
As Unions NSW calls for an "ironclad" deportation amnesty for foreign workers involved in wage theft investigations, an IR academic says a complete firewall between the FWO and the Department of Home Affairs would help move the law enforcement focus from migrants to their employers.
The ACTU's policy pitch for the next election will include the right for casual workers to convert to permanent after six months, equal rights for workers in the gig economy and a overhaul of labour hire regulation.
In a decision signalling potential judicial pushback against so-called "sham" agreements, a Federal Court has quashed a two-year-old deal approved by three employees that now covers more than 1000 mining services workers, ruling that the employer made inadequate efforts to explain a document benchmarked against 11 different awards.
